Doctor Who: Fallen Triangle - Part Two (Episodes 5-8)
by thunderdogg
Summary: The Doctor returns for Callum, Keith and Laura a year and a half after their last encounter, launching them into new adventures including a Dalek hunt in Chernobyl on the day of its explosion, an encounter with some old friends in present day London, a race against time to save Callum from a mysterious dimension, and a deadly game posed by a mysterious villain.
1. The Dalek Hunt (Part One)

**A/N - I'm being a good updater and catching up by starting Part Two a little early! This chapter mainly deals with getting Callum, Keith and Laura back into the TARDIS - with the beginning of the actual adventure starting about halfway through, but yeah, I hope you enjoy - and please remember to read and review, and if you haven't already, please go find "****_Fallen Triangle: Part One" _****to see how it all began.**

**Review-y Answer-y Bit**

**The10thDoctorRocks - Yup, Keith and Laura are back for the remainder of Part Two! I'm gonna do my best to make Callum seem a little different now - he's definitely grown up though!**

* * *

It was coming up for the end of January, 2013, and snow was falling over Glasgow. The school bell was ringing, announcing the end of the day and the beginning of the weekend, and Callum Hendrick, Keith Whyte and Laura McKinroy made their way out of the school courtyard amongst the crowd of other students. The snow was quite thick, and it crunched underfoot as the crowds made their way home.

"I always get a little paranoid with the snow now," Keith said, eyeing the sky suspiciously as they trudged through the snow. "After that whole Brimstone Snow scenario."

"What's that?" asked their other friend, Sean, popping up behind him. "Brimstone Snow?"

"Hm, oh, nothing," Keith replied, "just something I saw in a magazine or something. Anyway, what are you doing here? Don't you have a guitar lesson?"

"Aw, nah, it got cancelled because there's a weather warning for later on and Ms Duffy lives pretty far out, so she's not risking driving down just to get stuck. What are you three doing tonight?"

"Oh, not much," Callum said, as they turned the corner and walked up towards the Main Street. "Probably just sitting in."

"Keith's coming over to mine's and I'm making dinner," Laura told Sean. "I'm trying a new recipe."

"Yeah, _really_ looking forward to it," Keith said, and only Callum noticed the look of fear in his eyes. Laura had a reputation for making some really weird-tasting food. Stifling a laugh, Callum looked round to Sean.

"You got any plans for tonight then?" he asked, knowing full well that Sean would have someone's party to go to.

"Nah, there was that party that Kristen was gonna have, but the snow kind of messed up that plan," Sean replied, surprising Callum. Then he remembered that Kristen Granger lived two towns away in Renfield, and the trains would probably be cancelled because of the snow.

"Ah, yeah, hm, anyway, that's our bus there! See you later, Sean," Callum said, as the number 43 pulled up to the bus stop across the street, its lights piercing through the falling snow.

"Catch you later," Sean smiled, giving a small wave as Callum, Keith and Laura made their way over to the bus.

"Bye," Keith and Laura called in unison.

* * *

The bus journey home was fairly uneventful, and only lasted about ten minutes – which was a few minutes longer than normal because of the snow covering the roads. Finally, the bus pulled up at the stop around the corner from the neighbourhood that Callum and Laura lived in. Keith lived over on the rich side of town, but he didn't have the same snobbish attitudes as his parents occasionally did.

"So, this time they've jetted off to Tenerife for the week, and Jake's being an idiot and having people over, so I'm doing my best to spend as little time as possible at home," Keith was saying, as they made their way up the stairs that lead to the next street up.

"I thought Jake had moved out?" Callum said. "Tell him to piss off!"

"Nah, you know what he's like," Keith sighed. "Bloody idiot got fired on his second day for shouting at a customer. Then apparently, because of that, he couldn't pay his rent, and mum and dad refuse to pay it for him, so he's back at home, paying digs money."

"That's sucky," Laura said. "But at least it means I have you all to myself!"

"That's true," Keith said, wiggling his eyebrows, before planting a kiss on her nose, that was starting to go red from the cold.

"You sure you don't want to come over for a bit, Callum?" Laura asked as she took hold of Keith's gloved hand.

"Nah, I'm alright for now," Callum replied. "I might pop round later, but I just fancy having a bath and chilling for a bit."

"Well, okay, but make sure you call before you come round," Laura said. "Just so I know whether or not to make enough tomato, wasabi and soy sauce cheesecakes."

"Oh, yeah, sure," Callum smiled, as Keith silently retched without letting Laura see.

* * *

About an hour later, Callum was sitting at his desk on his laptop. He'd had a quick look through Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, played twelve games of Tetris, and cleared out his e-mails and now he was just bored. He'd already bathed and changed out of his school uniform and now he wasn't sure what to do. It was Friday night and he had no plans.

"I guess I could go to Laura's," he said to himself. "Hm, nah, her and Keith should just have some time together."

He considered phoning Sean or one of his other friends, but he couldn't be bothered and he found himself lying on his bed – gazing up at the ceiling. He'd put glow-in-the-dark stars all over it once he'd returned from his time with the Doctor and Amy, and he found them comforting to look at.

He felt himself begin to drift off, and decided that he would go for a nap and then decide what to do with the rest of his night after he woke up. He let his eyes close and began to fell aslee-

"_Callum!_"

His bedroom door flew open and the Doctor bounded into the room. Callum bolted up from the bed in shock.

"_Doctor_! You're back!"

"Yes, yes, yes, I know, now come on, no time to explain!"

"But you're back!" Callum cried again as he quickly leaned down and laced up his red Converse.

"Yes, hello! Sorry I'm so late, but the traffic was hellish!" the Doctor said, rolling his eyes. "Time vortex just seems to get busier and busier these days. Although I did see a cloud formation that resembled my face not long a-"

"I'm ready!" Callum cried, jumping up. "Right, we need to go get Keith and Laura!"

"Oh, yes, the more the merrier!" the Doctor said. "But we have to be quick – I don't know how long that signal's going to hold for."

"What signal?" Callum asked, as he put on his zipper and they made their way downstairs.

"Distress signal of some sort. Coming from somewhere in Earth's history. Not sure if it's past or future – can't be certain."

"It was a distress call that got us in trouble last time," Callum remembered. "Did you forget to switch off the automatic setting again?"

"Oh, no, I did that straight after the S.S. Bermuda incident," the Doctor said, as they made their way out the front door.

The TARDIS was sitting right outside Callum's front door, already covered in snow. The light of the console room shone out of the windows and illuminated their faces. Callum patted the door lightly in greeting. The Doctor smiled and pushed the doors open and they stepped in – the snow blowing in behind them.

Callum grinned at the sight of the familiar console room. The lights around the room were all off, making the time rotor the only real source of light, which seemed to give a cosy feel to the large room.

"Where's Amy?" he asked, realising that a particular redhead wasn't in the room.

"Oh, Amy's home now," the Doctor said, a little sadly, as he stepped up to the console.

"How come?" Callum replied, a little shocked – he'd figured Amy would always be with the Doctor.

"I told you about Rory once, didn't I?" the Doctor said, as he began working away at the console. Callum nodded. "Yeah, well, we found him again, and the three of us travelled for a while, and then I dropped them off home."

"Oh, that's good, I suppose, that they're together and they're happy! How long have you been travelling by yourself for?" Callum asked.

"Not too long," the Doctor said, smiling. "Don't worry. Anyway, where's Laura's address?"

"Here, I'll help," Callum said. "Haven't done this in a long time!"

"Oh, Callum Hendrick, all grown up," the Doctor cooed, as Callum quickly memorized the controls on the console. "How old are you now?"

"16," Callum replied, turning the spiral tracker and pressing the "ketchup" and "mustard" buttons. "17 this year."

"Oh, definitely all grown up – that was almost two years ago – blimey!" the Doctor remembered, fondly.

"Yeah," Callum smiled. "Oh, and speaking of: what took you so long?"

The Doctor suddenly became flustered. "Now, Callum, you know what the helmic regulator is like sometimes."

"Hm, I suppose I do," Callum laughed, reaching round and adjusting the regulator in question.

The time rotor came to life, and the sounds of the familiar throbbing of the TARDIS engines filled the room.

* * *

Keith gently prodded the food that Laura had placed in front of him. It wobbled violently like jelly, and some sort of green sauce leaked out the side.

"Are you enjoying it?" Laura called through from the kitchen as she put the last few dishes up at the sink.

"Y-yeah," Keith squeaked. He took a tiny amount on the end of his fork and lifted it to his mouth slowly, bringing it closer and closer to him.

Just as the offending food was about to touch his lips, there was a sudden whooshing noise and a buffet of wind flew through the living room. The TV magazine on the coffee table flipped through and some loose papers flew about wildly, and as Keith watched, a familiar blue box materialised in the doorway.

"Wh-what?" Laura said, as she walked through from the kitchen. Keith was still sitting holding the fork close to his mouth, as if he'd frozen in surprise.

"Hey, guys," Callum said, poking his head out the door. "Sorry I didn't phone ahead like you asked, Laura, but the Doctor sort of caught me offguard! Now, get a shift on – we've got a distress call here!"

"Oh, thank god," Keith said under his breath, throwing his fork down and running to get his trainers. He was still in his school uniform but he always wore trainers to school anyway, so that was no problem. Laura disappeared for a moment before coming back fully prepared to go.

"All ready?" Callum asked, standing in the doorway.

"Yup," Keith said. "So, wait, this is us leaving for wild adventures in time and space?"

"You're wondering about coming back for our stuff, aren't you?" Callum predicted.

"Aye," Keith nodded.

"The Doctor'll take us home after this and we can get our stuff," Callum replied. "Now get in before we lose the signal!"

* * *

"Right, now that I've got the three of you," the Doctor called in greeting, "we're going somewhere in Earth's future. Funny sort of signal – it's barely holding out. It hooked onto me when I was trying to get to you earlier. Wouldn't let me land on Christmas Day like I was trying to."

"Oh, we were thinking about you on Christmas Day," Laura smiled. The Doctor gave her a smile in return. "So wait, Christmas Day was only like half an hour ago for you?"

"Oh, Laura, think about it – we're in a time machine! It's Christmas right now, an infinite number of times across time and space! Gotta put it in perspective!" the Doctor cried.

"I guess that makes sense," Laura nodded. "Anyway, about this signal?"

"Yes?" the Doctor said, looking up from the console.

"Is this going to be like last time with space stations and robot pirate things?"

"Oh, no, no, no," the Doctor cried, shaking his head. "That was just a fluke. From the looks of this, it's just someone in need of a little assistance."

"Yeah, cos that always goes so well for us," Callum said, rolling his eyes.

"Oi, you've been away a year and a half, remember?" the Doctor said, waggling a finger in his direction. "I've matured."

"Yeah, I'm sure you have," Callum laughed, as the Doctor pulled down a lever on the console and the time rotor roared into life.

* * *

The TARDIS warped into appearance in a rather wobbly fashion – as if it didn't want to land. But finally, with a little coaxing from the Doctor and Callum, the old thing settled and landed in a small forest clearing. By the look of things, it was early springtime and the sounds of life filled the air. In the distance, the TARDIS crew could see smoke drifting from a nearby city.

"Any idea where we are yet?" Callum asked the Doctor, who frowned and took a sniff of the air.

"Hm. The air smells funny – kind of artificial – and I've got goosebumps. Not sure what that means," he observed. "Pity the scanner's playing up – but I'm guessing our distress call must be coming from the city."

"Let's go then!" Keith cried, bouncing ahead. Laura chased after him, smiling happily.

* * *

The walk into the city didn't take long, and the Doctor's expression seemed to get more and more concerned as they approached. Finally, when they were almost in the centre of the city, he stopped.

"Pripyat," he breathed, taking in the sight of the busy street ahead of them.

"Wait a sec," Laura frowned. "Pripyat as in... Chernobyl?"

"No way!" Keith gasped.

"Oh, this is very, very bad," the Doctor said, gravely. At that moment, Callum found a newspaper lying on an empty bench. "What's the date on it?"

"26 April, 1986," Callum read, and the Doctor stepped back in shock.

"It's today," he whispered. "Today. We need to find out what time it is!"

"You want the time?" asked a man dressed in dirty overalls, as he passed them. "About 5 past 10."

"5 past 10. Thank you very much, sir," the Doctor said, shaking the man's hand frantically before stepping back to rejoin Callum, Keith and Laura, while the worker walked away, looking a little confused. "Alright, we have about three hours and twenty minutes to find whoever called us and get back to the TARDIS."

"Wait a sec, so we ended up _back _in time?" Keith asked. "What happened to being in the future?"

"Yes, well, there must have been a glitch in the system or something," the Doctor frowned, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration, before muttering to himself, "What to do, what to do..."

"Well now that we know where we are, we could go back to the TARDIS and try and get the scanner back online, and then do a check for any unusual readings?" Callum suggested.

"No use," the Doctor replied. "You saw how she reacted when we were landing – she was resisting. It must be a future echo of the radiation that's scaring her."

"The TARDIS was scared to land?" Laura asked. "But surely it's a machine?"

"The TARDIS is much more than a machine," the Doctor said, shaking his head. "TARDISes are living things, and they're not built – they're grown. And mine's is the last one in the Universe."

"He calls her Sexy," Callum explained. Keith snorted with laughter. The Doctor glowered at them both, looking like an annoyed child and Laura found herself laughing too. The Doctor went to say something, but he was interrupted by the sound of a small explosion nearby. Several people on the street turned and stared down the street in the direction of the commotion.

"Wh-what was that?" asked Keith, suddenly terror-stricken. "You didn't get the time wrong, did you?"

"No, don't worry, that wasn't _the_ boom," the Doctor said. "But that came from nearby..."

"Shall we?" said Callum, a glint in his eye.

"Oh, most definitely," the Doctor nodded.

And with that, the four of them ran in the direction of the noise.

* * *

The source of the commotion was a nearby housing block, which was now blasting jets of smoke from one of the upper floor windows. The residents had all evacuated and were standing on the street outside, gazing up at the building.

"What's going on?" the Doctor asked, skidding to a halt by a group of residents.

"Not a clue," said a podgy woman wearing a grubby apron. "I was just leaving for work when suddenly the fire alarm goes off. Funny thing was, there was no smoke or anything til after the alarm went off."

"Hm, that's interesting," the Doctor replied. "Everyone out the building now?"

"Should think so," said another woman standing beside the podgy woman. This woman was much taller and thinner, with a mole on her nose, and her grey hair tied back in a messy bun. "I doubt anyone would be foolish enough to be in there after that blast."

Suddenly, there came a shout from inside the building and a girl came diving out wearing what appeared to be a catsuit with a large brown aviator's jacket over it.

"Everyone get down!" she shouted, diving through the air as the entire building exploded behind her, immediately raining rubble down on them all. A jet of fire blasted out of the front door, narrowly avoiding the mysterious girl. The Doctor, Callum, Keith and Laura immediately dived to the ground, and attempted to gaze through the ash and flying debris to see what was happening now.

The girl was already back on her feet, covered in scratches and bruises, and completely covered in ash and dust from the explosion. Her clothes were covered in gashes and blood was dripping through some of the cuts in her skin. She glared into the burning remains of the building with big, blue eyes for a moment, her long, black hair rippling in the breeze, and then her eyes seemed to drift over to the four TARDIS travellers.

"Oh, are you the back-up I asked for, then?" she called over, as the residents who had dived to the ground all began to get back on their feet. In the distance, a siren was ringing.

"The _back-up_?" the Doctor cried through a mouthful of dust, standing up and dusting himself off.

"Well, y'know, when there's a squad of Daleks on the prowl in Earth's history, a girl could do with a little assistance," the girl shouted.

"_D-Daleks_?" the Doctor breathed. "Here?"

"That's what I said," the girl said, stepping closer. "Now, I think we should probably get out of here before anyone starts asking questions. My name's Cassadee Evangeline, but you can call me Cassie."


	2. The Dalek Hunt (Part Two)

**A/N - Who's been good at updating? (The answer is ****_meeeee_****!) Yeah - well anyway, read and review and whatever! Enjooooy!**

* * *

The Time Lord and the three teenagers followed Cassie at full speed across the city until they reached a scrapyard full of cars.

"Okay, we should be safe here," Cassie said. "Right, identify yourselves and stuff, the usual mumbo-jumbo."

"I'm the Doctor, and these are my friends Callum, Keith and Laura."

"Friends? Aren't they a bit young?" Cassie said, raising an eyebrow.

"Young? You don't look too old yourself," scoffed Keith.

"Yeah, well, different people, kiddo," the girl replied. "So you got my signal then? I'm pretty surprised – I thought my wristband had packed in."

"That would explain why it was so difficult to pinpoint," the Doctor said, looking at the brown leather wriststrap on the girl's arm. "That's a Time Agent's vortex manipulator."

"And that would be because I'm a Time Agent," Cassie sighed.

"The Time Agency was disbanded ages ago," the Doctor frowned.

"Really? Well, I haven't got the memo yet," the girl said. "What a shame. I'll miss this job."

"Yes, anyway, your job. Your mission here is something to do with Daleks?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm a Dalek Hunter," said Cassie, proudly. "Best the Time Agency's got."

"A Dalek _Hunter_?" the Doctor cried, incredulously. "And how many Daleks have you... hunted?"

"Oh, well over two hundred," Cassie said, with a mischievous grin. "I brought down a Dalek saucer in the southern ice deserts of Raxacorricofallapatorius last year. Now, _that_ was a wild night!"

"She's crazy," Laura whispered, to Keith, who was gazing at the girl with the same expression of admiration as Callum. Keith wasn't sure what a Dalek was, but the Doctor had heard of them, so it was safe to assume they were probably dangerous.

"Alright," the Doctor said, looking a little irritated. "So what's your exact mission here?"

"A group of five Daleks have been located here. Reports indicate their ship was wiped out midflight in a time jump, and they fell straight through the time barrier, wound up here. As you may have noticed, I already got one."

At this, she reached behind her back, under the aviator's jacket, and withdrew a Dalek eyestalk that had been ripped out the top of the dome.

"Nearly cost me my life getting it off," she explained. "I thought it was dead – then it decided to do an emergency self-destruct. That all happened just there!"

"Well, that's one down, yes," the Doctor said. "Any idea where the other four could be?"

"Not a clue – but they're damaged, so they'll be weak," Cassie said. "I really only called back-up so I could be guaranteed a lift home, on account of my vortex manipulator going all funny. It says something about radiation surges, but nobody else seems aware of them."

"How long have you been here?" Laura asked.

"Oh, just under a week. The Daleks have been in hiding, y'see, and I've had to do most of my investigating at night, on account of the town always being really busy. But now that I have this," she brandished the eyestalk, "I can find the rest."

"Well, isn't that great?" the Doctor clapped. "Is your vortex manipulator functioning as a scanner?"

"It was..." Cassie said, suddenly a little embarrassed.

"Looks like we're going back to the TARDIS," the Doctor said, immediately turning and walking off in the direction they'd came from.

"But I thought the scanner wasn't working," Callum pointed out.

"Oh, I don't need the scanner for this. Not when I can make something else to scan it. Come on!"

And with that, the four of them followed after the Time Lord.

* * *

Returning to the TARDIS only took about five minutes, on account of the scrapyard being near the forest path that led to the glade they'd arrived in. The console room gave a brief groan as they walked in.

"Like what you've done with the place," commented Cassie as she shut the door behind her.

"Thank you," the Doctor yelled from over on the other side of the console, down in the little cupboard room. He ran up to the main level a moment later, before placing a silver box down on one of the seats that surrounded the console.

The others joined him and watched on as he opened the box and pulled out an assortment of springs, buttons and small levers, plus a whisk, a pulley rope and what appeared to be a Nintendo DS console.

"Pass me the mallet, will you?" the Doctor asked Keith, pointing at the rubber mallet sticking out of the toolbox under the console. Keith fetched it and handed it to the Doctor and with a grateful smile he began to repeatedly smack two objects together.

Several minutes later, with some more hammering and some make-shift sonicing with the screwdriver from Callum, the Doctor's invention was finally done and he held it high, triumphantly.

"So, what's that?" Callum asked.

"It's a Dalek detector," the Doctor said. "Well, it's an anything detector, really, but 'Dalek detector' has alliteration so I prefer that!"

"And how does it work?" Cassie asked.

"Simple. Gimme the eyestalk?" the Doctor requested. Cassie stood for a moment, unsure, before finally surrendering the eyestalk to him. He gave it a smack with the mallet, then held it up against the Dalek detector he now held. There was a few moments of silence where nothing happened, until finally:

"You forgot to switch it on," Laura said, quietly.

"Oh, yes, sorry," the Doctor said, absent-mindedly, yanking on the pulley rope as Cassie glared daggers at him.

"_That was meant to be a trophy_!" she shrieked.

"You can still have it," the Doctor frowned. "It's just got a dent in it. Much better condition than it would have been if you hadn't have stolen it in time."

"That's not the point! It's less valuable now!"

"Ah, so that's what you do," the Doctor said, nodding, knowingly. "You collect the bounty."

"Hey, a job's a job," Cassie said. "I get 500,000 credits for every eyestalk."

"That doesn't sound too bad at all," Keith murmured.

"It's not," the Doctor said. "500,000 credits is equal to one million pounds."

"Blimey," Keith spluttered. "Can we have an eyestalk when we find these things?"

"It's not that simple, Keith," Callum said. "The Doctor's told me about the Daleks before. These things are pure evil."

"How d'you mean?"

"They wiped out entire species and planets," the Doctor explained. "I've fought them _so_ many times."

"Oh, a professional?" Cassie said, her mischievous grin making a reappearance.

"More like a veteran," the Doctor said, shaking his head. He was adjusting several of the switches and buttons on the device in his hands and after a few seconds, he swivelled on the spot and smacked it off the console.

"It needed a bump," he explained, seeing the quizzical looks on the others' faces.

"What I don't get is, if these Daleks are so dangerous," Laura said, "why are we getting involved?"

"Because these things need to be stopped," the Doctor said. "If we don't stop them now, they could go on to kill every living thing on this planet!"

"But wait, surely not, because we weren't born til 1996, so the world couldn't exactly end ten years before that, could it?" Keith asked. The Doctor facepalmed and looked to Callum, as if begging him to explain it to his friends.

"Wibbly wobbly timey wimey," Callum said, rolling his eyes. "Time is constantly in a state of flux which means it can be changed. Only if our births were fixed points in time would it be a certainty. So basically, yeah, the entire future of the human race is at stake!"

"Oh, that's so reassuring," Keith said, sarcastically.

"I actually understood that," Laura said, blinking with surprise. Callum smiled.

"_I've got it_!" the Doctor yelled, suddenly. "Come out, come out, wherever you are, Daleks!"

Sure enough, the little screen on the device suddenly lit up and flashed, displaying what appeared to be a map of the area. A single dot was flashing not too far away from where the TARDIS had landed.

"Whereabouts is that?" Keith asked.

"Looks like it's out in Worm Wood Forest," Cassie said, leaning over to inspect the screen. "We're on the outskirts of it already."

"Alright," the Doctor said, rubbing his chin. "We need a battle-plan."

"A battle-plan?" Callum asked. "That's a bit new for us, isn't it?" The Doctor nodded, gravely.

"I'm afraid so, but this is serious business," he said. "Remember just how big a risk they're posing just by being here. This could end terribly."

"Uh, Doctor," Laura said, suddenly, "there's another blip now."

"Oh, that's good – two's always better than one. Where's that one?"

"Some old abandoned storage sheds," Cassie said, thinking back to the schematics of the town she had memorized prior to her mission.

"So, what's the plan? We're gonna need weapons, aren't we?" Callum frowned.

"I'm fully armed, already, thanks," Cassie said, opening her jacket to show the gun holsters strapped across her body. She then leaned down and pulled a knife out of one of her boots, then a small pistol out of the other. Finally, she reached behind her back and produced another rather fancy-looking gun.

"Blimey," Keith said, impressed.

"If you think that's good," Cassie smirked, "I have three poison darts in my wristband, a knife concealed in each of my boots, shuriken in the pack strapped to my leg, and several small detonators on my belt."

"You're a walking armoury," the Doctor commented, not sounding as particularly impressed as Keith had.

"Weapons aren't really our thing," Callum explained, staring at Cassie with a dumbstruck expression.

"What a pity," Cassie replied. "You'd look cute with a sword." Callum turned a brilliant shade of red and Keith snorted with laughter, while Laura stifled a giggle of her own.

"Well," the Doctor said, "now that _that_ little moment is over, let's make a plan."

"Y-yeah," squeaked Callum, making a mental note to himself to smack his head off a wall.

"We have about two hours and forty minutes left to find these four Daleks and get back here before the reactor is destroyed," the Doctor said.

"Oh, so I don't need to get you up to speed on the reactor disaster then?" Cassie said, brightly.

"Nope, Callum, Keith and Laura are all from this planet's future, so they already have a basic understanding of what's going to happen here," the Doctor explained.

"Well, that saves some time," she replied, coolly. "And I'm assuming you've told them not to go trying to change time or anything stupid like that?"

"Yeah, but if time is in flux," Keith said, "surely we could stop it from even happening?"

"Nice thought, kid," Cassie smirked, "but time's actually fixed here. Probably a paperwork error, but yeah, it's irrelevant to the mission anyway, so we can't really get involved."

"Surely _we_ could though, Doctor?" Laura asked. "We arrived a-"

"No, I'm afraid not," the Doctor said, shaking his head sadly. "Like she said, time is fixed here."

"Oh," Laura sighed. "It's not fair. All those people out there are going to die today and we can't do anything to help!"

"I know, and that's the sort of burden we have as time travellers," the Doctor explained. "Sometimes we can intervene and save people, but then there are times like now where we have to stay out of it, or we could risk damaging the whole of history!"

"Okay," Laura said, sadly. "I get it."

"Anyway," Cassie cried, "we have Daleks to hunt! Priorities!"

"Yeah, you're right," Laura nodded. "I need to stay focused."

The Doctor smiled proudly at Laura's bravery.

"Right, well, how are we going to go about this?" Keith asked.

"I think our only real option is to split up, I'm afraid," the Doctor sighed. "I don't like it at all, but with these two Daleks both so close to the town, it's our only real chance at stopping them getting in."

"So we're gonna save their lives, just for them to get radiated?" Keith asked. "Doesn't that seem a little ironic?"

"If that's how you want to look at it," Cassie shrugged. "I have a mission to be getting on with though, Doctor, so if you want to divide us up, feel free. You seem to know what you're doing at least."

"All right, all right," the Doctor said. "Right, Callum, you with me, and you two with Cassie."

"You're certainly trusting me a lot considering we only just met," Cassie commented.

"Yes, well you're a Time Agent on a mission, and the Daleks are your target, so I don't see you being of any threat to us. Plus you were the one who asked us for help in the first place, so it's only logical that I put some trust in you."

"I like your thinking, Doc," Keith nodded. "I figure we're a team for now."

"Alright then, Team Cassie," the girl laughed. "Oh, I have a team, that's fun!"

"Yes, but you have to make sure they're both okay," the Doctor said, pointing a finger at her.

"You have my word, Doctor," the Time Agent replied.

"Excellent," the Doctor said, smiling brightly. "Let's go find some Daleks!"


	3. The Dalek Hunt (Part Three)

**A/N - Hi, I've been bad at updating, I'm really sorry! Have a chapter in apology! I get the feeling this story might turn out to be five or six chapters as opposed to the usual four, but that's nothing to complain about, I guess. So enjoy for now!**

* * *

"_Repooort!_" crackled the Dalek Group Leader, from its location in their current base – an underground bunker. The blue light from its eyestalk pierced through the dimly lit chamber. The Daleks had been hiding in stasis since they had crashed, which had caused them all an incredible amount of damage. They had only just come out of hiding to do their scout of the area that they had arrived in a week earlier.

"_One fa... ta... lity in the city_," replied one of the Daleks currently scouting the abandoned storage complex. "_No signs of hu... mans in this sec... tor. They app... ear to con... gre... gate in the city or the near... by nu... clear power area._"

"_No signs of activity in forest area, minus animal life,_" another Dalek said, rattling through its limited data-banks. "_Sensors indicate fatality of Dalek unit within the city was caused by an emergency self-destruct!_"

"_Emergency self-destruct indicates our Time Agent pursuer is near,_" the leader reasoned. "_We must take care whilst we repair ourselves. Our plan must not fail!_"

_"We obey,"_ replied the other three Daleks in unison.

* * *

Onboard the TARDIS, the five current occupants were gearing up. The Doctor had sent Callum into the depths of the time machine to locate a room that an "old Time Agent friend who travelled with me a long time back" had left several weapons in before leaving the TARDIS.

Meanwhile, back in the console room, the Doctor and Cassie were giving a brief rundown on the Daleks to the two newest recruitments to the TARDIS crew.

"They're incredibly deadly," the Doctor was saying, currently facing the scanner. He was fiddling with the buttons trying to locate a certain file. "They exist only to destroy and conquer everything that isn't Dalek."

"Hm, they sound like nice guys," Keith replied, sarcastically.

"What exactly do they look like?" Laura asked.

"That's what I'm trying to do just now," the Doctor said. "Finding their file on the TARDIS databanks so I can- oh, I've got it!"

With a final flick of a switch and the press of a button, a hologram of a Dalek was projected by the door. The others turned to look at it, with the two teens looking horrified, while Cassie just gave it a disdainful glance. Besides the ever-constant thrum of the TARDIS, the console room was silent as they gazed upon the hologram of the pepper-pot death machine.

Finally, Keith broke the silence. "Th-that's what we're up against?" he said.

"I'm afraid so," the Doctor said, sombrely. "Just remember this could be incredibly dangerous."

"Hey, I found them four floors up, past the aquarium and through the genetics lab," Callum said, coming back down the flight of stairs, with a large box under his arm. "The ceiling might need fixed in the lab, by the way."

"Oh, I'll get round to it later," the Doctor said, absent-mindedly, waving a hand, vaguely. Callum reached the console and opened the lid of the box, handing out some futuristic looking guns to each of them, and taking one himself.

"I'm not sure how I feel about this," he said, feeling rather uncomfortable holding a gun. "It's not really our style."

"I know how you feel," the Doctor sighed in agreement. "But needs must."

"How exactly do you... um... use them?" Laura asked, looking over the gun in her hand. They were all sleek, futuristic pistols, with blue parts that were beginning to glow faintly. The silver metal they were made of had began to rust slightly but they still seemed to be functioning.

"These are pretty special," the Doctor replied. "It works on a sort of psychic interface. Basically, point-and-think."

"Woah, awesome!" Keith grinned. Suddenly, he was thrown backwards across the console room as the pistol blasted the floor underneath him with a flash of pale green light. He sunk to the floor and gave them a wobbly smile and a thumbs up.

"I'm okay," he squeaked, as Laura and Callum ran down the stairs to help him back up.

"Someone hasn't put the safety on," Cassie smirked.

"Oh, ha ha," Keith replied, sarcastically.

"Well, then, before we end up killing _each other_," the Doctor said. "How about we get a move on?"

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea," Callum agreed. "Let's go!"

* * *

A little over ten minutes later, 'Team Cassie' had made their way out on the trail of one of the Daleks out at the abandoned storage sheds.

"I'm not sure I like the thought of taking on these things," Laura said, uneasily, looking down uncomfortably at the gun holstered to her hip.

"Don't worry 'bout it, kid," said Cassie, rolling her eyes. "It'll be me doing all the work, anyway."

"Aw man, I wanted to be tough and shoot some evil guys!" Keith pouted.

"Keith, you're scared of everything," Laura murmured, smiling lightly.

"I can be brave for you," Keith replied, defiantly.

"Hm, give me a buck for everytime a man's told me that one with a gun in his hand," Cassie smirked, earning herself another pout from Keith. "Oh, smell that testosterone."

"Aren't we near that old complex that was on the map?" Laura said, diverting the flow of conversation from her boyfriend's bravery.

"Yup, space cadet," quipped Cassie. "Just a little further."

They walked for several more minutes, with Laura holding on to Keith's hand tightly. She was incredibly nervous and he could tell, as he gave her hand a comforting squeeze. She looked up to him and gave a little smile, which he returned with one of his trademark grins.

Cassie noticed their little exchange and felt a twinge of jealousy somewhere deep down. It had been a long time since she'd been like that with someone. _Young love_, she thought bitterly.

"Alright, lovebirds," she said, as they approached the end of the trail, "we're here. I'll assume you don't want to split up."

"Well, three of us sticking together would be preferable," Keith said. "I don't fancy facing off against one of these things by myself."

"Tough," Cassie replied, with her devilish grin. "Oh, don't worry, you don't actually have to take it down. Just, y'know, come running if you find it."

"Why do we have to split up?" he groaned in reply.

"Because," Cassie retorted, putting her hands on her hips, "I'm Team Leader and I say so. Plus there's a lot of warehouses and sheds to explore and it'll be quicker if we do it my way, alright?" Keith glowered at her for a moment, before considering what she was saying.

"I... guess," he finally said, frowning a little. Laura didn't seem particularly pleased.

"So, wait, there's so many places," she said, "how many do we each take?"

"I'll take the furthest bit over there," Keith said, pointing down to where several warehouses, surrounded by sheds were situated. Cassie nodded, approvingly.

"Alright, I'll take the central lot here," she said, pointing with her thumb in the direction of the large warehouses ahead of them. Laura wondered how long exactly they'd all been abandoned for, as they were all rusted and in need of disrepair.

"I suppose that leaves me with the glasshouses down there," she said, looking down at the rusting and shattered greenhouses down at the far side of the complex.

"So, we just come running if we find anything?" Keith asked.

"Well, yeah, but try and give us a heads up first. Phone numbers, quickly," Cassie replied.

* * *

The Doctor and Callum had made their way deeper into the forest in pursuit of another Dalek, the Doctor rather awkwardly holding another of the laser pistols that Captain Jack had left onboard the TARDIS what felt like life-times – or maybe just a life-time – ago.

Callum had his holstered to his hip, and he was as uncomfortable with using it as the Doctor was.

"Perhaps this wasn't the most qualified arrangement for a team," the Doctor commented, smiling slightly to himself.

"Hm, yeah, I'm not particularly sure how I'm gonna feel about shooting something," Callum nodded.

"Perfectly understandable," the Doctor nodded. "I just wish we didn't have to deal with this situation at all."

"Couldn't we have just left Cassie to do it? She said she was qualified and she only really needed us for a lift home?"

"No, it's best never to take any risks with Daleks. Especially ones that have wound up back in time. The consequences could be devastating."

Callum nodded, ducking under a tree branch and looking over to the Doctor.

"I can't remember if I mentioned before," he said, "but you look different. Like, older."

"You're one to talk," the Doctor smiled. "Been a whole year and a half!"

"No, like, I don't mean just that," Callum said, sharing a smile. "It's hard to explain, really, I dunno. I guess it's understandable though, you're bound to have seen all sorts of stuff since we last saw each other!"

"Oh, stuff you wouldn't believe," the Doctor smiled. "Pirates – actual pirates, not cyborg pirates – and a Siren, and a minotaur, oh, and there was a bit of a kerfuffle with Hitler. He ended up locked in a cupboard."

"Hitler?!" cried Callum, incredulously.

"Yeah, that was a strange day," the Doctor nodded. "Very busy too."

Before Callum could reply, they were interrupted by a sudden blast of blue light, that narrowly missed them both. The blast smashed into a tree behind them and it exploded on impact, sending splinters raining down on the forest.

"Oh, now we're in trouble!" the Doctor cried, lifting Callum to his feet and dragging him away from the quickly approaching Dalek.

* * *

It had only been a few minutes since the three of them had split up and Laura was already regretting it. She had her hand on the handle of her gun should she need to remove it from the holster, as she pushed open the door, tentatively.

_I really, really, really don't like this_, she thought as the door screeched open. Even though several of the glass panes of the greenhouses had been shattered, the remaining ones were covered in grime and dirt, meaning that the only light she was getting was that from the shattered panes.

She took a moment to look at the time on her phone, noting that her screen had changed to tell her that she could only phone one number, which she recognized as the one Cassie had given her. She also noted that besides that she had no signal.

"Well, of course not, I'm like 30 years out of range," she murmured to herself, before glancing at the time in the corner of the screen. "Hm, two hours until we have to get out of here."

She began to make her way down the dark greenhouse, trying to be as quiet as possible, which is especially difficult when shattered glass was crunching underfoot with every step she took. She used the torch on her phone camera to illuminate ahead of her. It wasn't much, but she felt a little safer with it.

The greenhouses, which had once housed a variety of bright plants and flowers, was now a graveyard of wilted flora and fauna. It made Laura feel a little sad, and she thought fondly of her mother, who owned a flower shop just outside of Glasgow City Centre. Laura sometimes helped around the flower shop at weekends, and if there was on thing she couldn't stand, it was the smell of dead flowers.

She walked on for several minutes, trying to find her way through the darkness. Someone had left some garden tools left lying carelessly on the floor and she tripped on them, stumbling forwards, clutching onto a table for support, escaping a proper fall with a cut hand from the edge of the table. She hissed in frustration as her hand began to bleed and she clenched it into a fist as there was nothing else she could really do for now.

After inspecting the rest of the first greenhouse she had entered, she walked out the door at the other end into a small cobbled path that connected the greenhouses to each other. The cobbles were cracked and some of them had completely crumbled. Fortunately, however, there was enough of a gap in between the roofs of the greenhouses that sunlight was pouring in through the gaps in the dull clouds dragging by up above.

She slowly ambled her way along the path, opening the doorways of each greenhouse – some had more light pouring in than others, thankfully – and she quickly assessed that there was only two or three greenhouses that needed further exploration before she could head back and meet the others.

She made her way back to one of the doors she had already opened on her way down and stepped in, carefully. There wasn't much broken glass in this greenhouse, but it was still quite dark. She put on the torch on her phone camera again and shone it at her feet to make sure she didn't trip over anything else like she had before. She winced as her hand started stinging again. Stepping further into the gloom, she made a silent note that she wished Keith was with her, holding her hand, although he'd probably be more scared than she was. Just thinking that brought a small smile to her face, which suddenly dropped as she heard a sound from nearby.

"_In...tru...der lo... ca...ted_," croaked a faint metallic voice from somewhere in the darkness. Laura spun round in the direction of the gravelly voice and knocked over a table in the process. The plant pot that had been resting on the table fell to the floor and shattered, but she barely registered that as a single blue light appeared dimly, just ahead of her. The blue light flickered ever so slightly, but it still felt menacing to her, and she began to step back towards the door.

The Dalek withdrew from the darkness, the faint light from outside illuminating off of its metal body. Laura's eyes widened as she noticed what appeared to be a gun arm, twitching up towards her, and took that moment as her cue to dive to the side, as a blast of blue light shot at her, smashing a pane of glass above her and showering her in shards of glass. She yelled out in fear as she pushed herself back off the cold ground and leaped for the doorway, slamming the door shut behind her and running back down the path to find her way back to the others.

A moment later, another blast smashed through the greenhouse door, and the battered Dalek slowly began to give chase.

* * *

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Callum were facing a few problems of their own.

"_Ex-ter-minaaaate!_" screeched the Dalek in its robotic growl as it glided its way towards them. It was hovering several feet above the ground, and making quick speed to catch up with them both. Another ray blast shot over Callum's head, narrowly avoiding him.

"Why aren't we shooting at it yet?!" Callum yelled at the Doctor between sharp inhalations of breath. He could feel the adrenalin kicking in now and he was trying not to panic.

"Because, I have a few questions for it," the Doctor panted. "But before I do that, we're gonna need it alive!"

"_Exterminaaate!_"

"Duck!"

They dived at the same time, crashing down onto the forest floor as another ray blast sailed right above the space they had just been running. The Doctor immediately rolled over and was back on his feet in an instant, while Callum took that moment to roll behind the cover of a tree before pushing himself back up.

"_Show yourselves! Identify! Identify!_"

"Ah, wait, yes, haven't tried that yet, have we?" the Doctor said, more to himself than to Callum, who was clutching the tree trunk he was leaning on while he tried to regain his breath.

"Wait, what? You're actually going to walk out in front of that thing?!" Callum panted, a look of shock on his face.

"No, of course not, Hendrick," the Doctor said, with a dismissive wave. "I'm just gonna tell it who I am." He looked around the tree he was now hiding behind in the direction of the Dalek. "Oi, Dalek! Guess who's came for a visit!"

"_Voice print recognized!_" the Dalek said, after a second or two. "_Target identified as the Doctooor! You will be ex-ter-mi-na-ted!_"

"Ah, no, that's not on the priority list," the Doctor said, and Callum watched as he slipped his hand into the pocket of his tweed jacket, before withdrawing the sonic screwdriver. He motioned to Callum to identify himself. "Y'see, I have a duty to stop you."

"I-I identify myself too," Callum stammered, a little unsure as to how exactly the Doctor's plan was going to work. He looked over to the Doctor who gave a nod and a thumbs up of assurance. "I'm Callum Hendrick, of the Earth year 2013."

"_You are not known to the Daleks,_" the Dalek replied, harshly. It was drawing closer and closer, though it had seemingly slowed when the Doctor had identified himself. "_Databanks indicate-cate-cate-cate..._"

"Oh, well, that changes this plan a little," the Doctor beamed, striding out from the cover of the tree trunk."

"Doctor, what are you doing?!" Callum cried. "It'll kill you!"

"No, it won't," the Doctor smiled. "Insufficient power. Its weapons are completely useless. Well, the plunger could be a problem, but I don't plan on getting too close. Am I right, Dalek?"

"_Y-you must b-b-b-be ex-te-te-terminate-ate-ated!_" the Dalek burbled, as it stopped hovering and fell several feet onto the forest path with a dull clunk. The Doctor motioned for Callum to come out of his hiding place and tentatively, he crept out from the cover of the tree.

"You knew that would happen, didn't you?" Callum said, eyeing the Doctor in suspicion.

"It was a hunch," the Doctor admitted, sheepishly. "I assumed they wouldn't be in full working order if the first one had to self-destruct to attempt to kill Cassie. Only makes sense that the others would be in the same condition."

"Yeah, well, next time you have a hunch, fancy giving me a heads up?" Callum laughed. The Doctor gave a brief nod, before his face turned serious again and he took another few steps towards the fallen Dalek. Its bronze, metal body was dented and scorched, with several of the round spheres of its lower half completely missing. It was twitching the gun and the plunger it had in a vain attempt to attack them.

"So, Dalek," the Doctor said. "What's the plan?" The Dalek's eyestalk suddenly turned to look at them both, as if suddenly interested by the Doctor's words. Callum was suddenly a little confused.

"Wait, I thought they crashed by accident or something?" he said, voicing his confusion.

"Well, yes, of course they did," the Doctor said, as if that made the whole thing make sense. "But as soon as they did, they would have formulated some sort of Plan B."

"Oh..."

"_We... have... no... p-plan!_" the Dalek said, as its voice slowly got more and more distorted by its loss of power.

"Oh, don't take me for a fool," the Doctor replied, sharply. "I suppose I could just do things the more direct away."

The Dalek seemed to back away slightly, though its power was clearly almost completely depleted.

"_E-engage emer-emer-emergency-_" it began.

"It's going to blow itself up, isn't it?" Callum said, taking a step back.

"Pretty much, yeah, but before it does..." the Doctor replied, bounding towards the Dalek and swung around behind it as it tried to reach its plunger arm out.

"What are you doing?" cried Callum. "Its about to blow up!"

"I know it's about to blow up!" the Doctor called back, frantically as he sonicked the casing of the Dalek and its head slid up.

"_Emergency... self-destruct... in-in-initiated!_"

"Doctor!"

"Just a minute!"

"_You... will... be... exter-_"

"Oh, shut up!" the Doctor replied, as he sonicked something inside the Dalek's casing and then pulled it completely out, before leaping back from the Dalek, towards the cover of the trees. "And now we run!"

It was too late to completely escape though, as the self-destruct kicked in and the Dalek exploded and a massive ball of flame engulfed the Dalek's casing, and the surrounding trees. The Doctor and Callum were sent flying by the force of the explosion, with the Doctor falling to the ground about twenty feet away. Callum felt the heat from the explosion on his skin as he was carried through the air, flailing his arms wildly. The sound was terrible and he hoped that his ears wouldn't shatter. However, that thought was cut short by Callum smashing into a nearby tree full impact. He gave a cry of pain as the momentum caught up on him and moments later he was on the forest floor, as his vision began to blur, and darkness overwhelmed him.


	4. The Dalek Hunt (Part Four)

**A/N - Yay for catching up on updates, sorry I've been so late, but have part 4 as an apology! Like I said last chapter, this story's probably gonna end up either 5 or 6 parts :') Enjoy!**

**Reviews**

**The10thDoctorRocks - Yeah, I try to keep the Doctor as in character as I can, cos I've seen quite a few stories where the Doctor's been really out of character and it's really ruined the quality of the story!**

**Canned it 2011-2012 - haha, yeah, I kinda intended to make Cassie a lot like Jack, as I get the feeling that all Time Agents are a bit flirtatious and crazy :') I'm not sure whether I'll bring River Song or the Silence into any stories at this point, but I'll see where the stories take me, haha!**

**lauren(guest) - I might bring Amy back at some point, I'm not sure though cos I kinda want to keep the continuity in line with the TV series! :')**

* * *

"_The Triangle is waiting, Callum Hendrick._"

Callum's eyes snapped open at the words he had just heard whispered. He wasn't lying in a Ukrainian forest anymore. He wasn't really sure where he was. He pushed himself off the ground to find himself in a completely white void, full of what appeared to be drifts of white clouds on the horizon. The ground felt pretty solid beneath his feet, but there was absolutely nothing.

"I'm dreaming again," he realised aloud.

The dreams had started the night before he'd left the Doctor and Amy, a year and a half ago. He could never remember anything about them once he'd woken up, but he always remembered them all when he was in the "dream world". In the first dream he had been surrounded by Weeping Angels and he had used some strange power to dispel them. Ever since then, however, the dreams were like the one he was currently having: just a white void.

And any moment now, they would appear.

"Hey, Callum," said a voice from behind him. He turned round to face the boy, Tyger. He'd been the first person he met in this strange world, yet like the rest of the dream, he could never remember him when he was awake.

"Oh, hi, Tyger. Where's the others?"

"They're probably on their way now," Tyger said. He was a little shorter than Callum, with dark hair with some streaks of blonde through it. His clothes reminded Callum of the outfits he'd seen people wearing on a desert planet a long time ago, with a thin blood-red cloak. Under that, he wore a padded vest and some grey three-quarter length shorts. On his feet he wore a pair of black ankle-high sandals.

"Ah, I figured I'd probably be seeing you two again, soon enough," said a violet-haired girl, as she slowly appeared from out of the void. She was dressed in a pale blue kimono, and looked rather irritated.

"Lovely to see you too, Kai," Tyger said, his trademark goofy smile on his face.

"Alright, who did it this time?" sighed another voice, as a boy with heavy-lidded eyes and jet-black hair materialised. He was wearing some sort of futuristic soldier's uniform, yet it was obvious from his appearance that he was still pretty young, maybe around the same age as Callum.

"Oh, hey, Maxie," Callum said, giving a two-finger salute.

"Hey, Hendrick," the boy replied, smiling slightly. He wasn't too big on showing emotion, but he made the exception every once in a while. _Good practice_, he had told them all once, a long time ago. _One day the war'll be over, and I don't want to forget what it is to feel._

"Oh, brother, you guys _again_?" a red-haired girl said, rolling her eyes as she began to appear. "Someone's gonna have to explain why this keeps happening."

"Maybe we'll be able to answer that for you one day, Shelly," the girl in the kimono – Kai – snapped. She looked at the redhead with clear disdain.

"Jeez, don't bite my head off, Kai," Shelly retorted, pouting at her. "Just so happens I only fell asleep about half an hour ago. I'm guessing the rest of you are asleep too?"

"Kinda," Callum said, rubbing the back of his neck, sheepishly. "I'm sort of unconscious."

"Unconscious?" Tyger blinked, tilting his head to look at Callum with a child-like expression of curiosity.

"Yeah, it's kinda complicated," Callum sighed. "To cut it short, a Dalek just blew itself up and I never managed to clear away in time."

"A _Dalek_?!" Tyger and Shelly cried in unison. Callum noticed Maxie's fist clench, and even Kai, who usually remained reasonably stoic looked a little worried.

"I'm guessing you all know what they are then?"

"Y-yes," Kai said, trying to keep her calm mask on, but the façade cracked and she gulped.

"What are you doing taking on Daleks?" Shelly cried, her jade green eyes wide with shock.

"Like I said, it's a long story," Callum replied with a smile. "At least I'm only unconscious, could definitely be worse."

"The other three still aren't here," noted Maxie, calmly, his fist having unclenched.

"Hm, they must still be awake, then, I guess," Tyger said, putting his hands in his pockets. "I guess it's a big Universe, no wonder we're not always here."

"Yes, but I think you're missing the point of the issue," Kai said, having recovered from her initial fear. "Where exactly is _here_? We've been here twenty-two times."

"You've been counting?" Shelly asked, surprised.

"You haven't?" Maxie countered, quietly.

"Heck, yeah, Shelly, even I've been counting," Tyger cried, flashing another goofy grin. But before the redhead could respond, there was a slight tremor.

"Oh, someone's waking up," Maxie noted, quietly.

"I reckon it'll be Callum, the Mighty Dalek Assassin!" Tyger said, playfully, striking a heroic pose.

"Oh, well, if it is, I guess I'll be seeing you guys next time. Y'know, I wish I could remember this when I was awake – then maybe I could get the Doctor to help," Callum said, as the void began to disappear and Tyger, Maxie, Kai and Shelly began to fade.

"Just do your best," Tyger said, giving him a grin.

"Good luck, Hendrick," Maxie nodded, his gloved hand indicating a thumbs up.

Kai inclined her head and closed her eyes, and Shelly gave a last wave, and the next thing Callum knew-

* * *

"Callum!"

He shot upright with a cry of surprise, and immediately regretted it as a sharp stabbing pain came from his torso. He gasped in pain, clenching his fist. The Doctor was crouched next to him, having been trying to wake him up for several minutes. His bowtie was a little askew, and his jacket and face were covered in ash.

"Doctor! There's something-" he winced again, "something I need to remember."

"Don't worry about it right now, Hendrick," the Doctor said, looking rather concerned. "Are you alright?" Callum gave a little shrug and pulled his T-shirt up to inspect the damage. Dark purple and blue bruises were already forming across the centre of his torso, mainly around his navel, although he'd also managed to scrape his side when falling from his impact with the tree, and a three-inch graze covered his left side, stopping at his hip. It had already started to bleed but it didn't look too bad.

"Ooh, we best get you back to the TARDIS," the Doctor frowned. "We can get you fixed up before we go find the others."

"Sounds like a plan," Callum coughed, slowly climbing to his feet, using the tree beside him for support. "What was that you got out of the Dalek before it blew up, anyway?"

"Ah, this," the Doctor said, a small smile appearing. He reached into his pocket and withdrew what appeared to be a large metal egg with some strange ridges running along its side. "Dalek memory bank. I can take this back to the TARDIS and analyse it while you're getting patched up, and then we can find out what the Daleks are up to!"

"Well, that's two down so far, and the others will probably have got the third one by now, right?" Callum wheezed, stumbling a little.

"Hopefully," the Doctor frowned, as he grasped Callum's bruised arm and stopped him from falling over a tree root. They passed the smoking wreckage of the Dalek's casing, and couldn't help but notice the horrific bubbling sound from deep within it.

* * *

"Run!" yelled Cassie as the doorway exploded and the Dalek entered the warehouse. Laura had quickly caught up with her and warned her of the Dalek and the two of them were now running down aisles upon aisles of boxes. The ray blast from the Dalek's next shot flew down the aisle at an impossible speed and Cassie yanked Laura down another sharp turn, narrowly avoiding the deadly beam.

"Thank you!" panted Laura, and Cassie gave her a nod of acknowledgement in return, before she peeked back at the Dalek pursuer.

"Hm, I can't get it in range for my gun," she said.

"You can use mines?" Laura said, removing it from the holster on her hip.

"Nah, I'm good," Cassie replied. "We're best getting it outside anyway, who knows what stuff could be in here – don't want to blow ourselves up."

"That's a fair point," Laura nodded, feeling rather stupid for not considering that herself.

"Alright, here's the plan, you run back out down that way, and I'll distract it by going out this way," said Cassie. Laura gave another nod and prepared to run. "Now!"

The both bolted instantly. Laura turned a sharp left at the end of the aisle, skipping around a pile of boxes and down the far side of the warehouse. Meanwhile, Cassie had stood out in the main aisle, confronting the Dalek.

"Oi, Skaro scum," she yelled, defiantly, "come and get me."

"_You... will... be... ex...ter...min-ateeed!_" the Dalek burbled, slowly approaching her. Cassie waited until its gun twitched up to face her before diving into the next aisle, only just avoiding the beam of blue light that shot towards her at breakneck speed.

"Easy as pie," she smirked, steadying herself back on her feet.

Laura was having a small problem of her own however, as one of the dilapidated shelves had collapsed, blocking the only aisle she could go down to get out. She caught sight of the Dalek at the top of the aisle to her left and tried to push at the large pile of debris without being noticed.

However, fate wasn't on her side as a metal bar fell from the top of the pile and clattered to the floor. The Dalek's eyestalk rotated to face her, and she screamed out, trying to scramble over the pile.

"_Ex... ter... min... ate!_"

Laura closed her eyes. _I love you, Keith_, she thought, doing her best not to waste her final thoughts. _Oh, God, I'm gonna die ten years before I was even born!_

She kept her eyes clenched shut, and for a moment she heard nothing but her heartbeat and her sharp breaths.

And then there was the explosion. She opened her eyes just in time to see the Dalek as it was ripped apart by a blast of light. She shielded her eyes with one hand while struggling to see what had caused the explosion. Moments later, through the smoke and the flame, a silhouette appeared. Too short to be Cassie.

"Hey, baby," smiled Keith as he stepped out of the smoke, gun in hand. He spun the trigger part on his finger before putting it back in his holster. "Can't beat a good shoot-'em-up game!"

Laura was lost for words for a moment, spluttering on something that was a combination of a laugh and a sob. She ran towards Keith and grabbed him into a rib-shattering hug.

"I love you so much, oh my God," she sniffled, as the tears began to run down her face.

"Hey, hey, it's alright," said Keith, softly, rubbing her back in a soothing circular motion. "You're okay, you're okay!" She blinked and looked into his eyes with wet eyes and smiled weakly.

"I said I love you, idiot!" she pouted, suddenly, catching him offguard. He blinked in surprise and then broke into a wide smile.

"I love you too!" he laughed, pressing a kiss on her forehead.

"Hey, lovebirds," Cassie said, appearing from behind the smoking Dalek casing. "Good shot, kiddo. Though we _were _trying to play it safe."

"Well, nothing blew up," pointed out Laura, wiping away the last of her tears with the sleeve of her jumper, and letting Keith loose from her death-grip of a hug.

"You make a fair point," nodded Cassie. "Anyway, now that we've dealt with this one, shouldn't we be heading back to the fancy police box?"

"Aye, probably," Keith nodded, taking hold of Laura's hand. "Oh, you're hurt!"

"Aw, yeah, I tripped and cut my hand," she explained. The cut had stopped bleeding but it was still quite sore.

"Well, hopefully there's a first-aid kit somewhere in that TARDIS – I just hope the Doctor and Callum are back," said Keith, inspecting Laura's wound with careful eyes. His dad was a doctor, and he'd went out of his way to drill basic first-aid into his sons, though Keith seemed to be the only one who retained the information.

"Well, then, let's go already!" Cassie said. "Such a pity you shot it in the head though, kid. You've completely wrecked its eyestalk. That's me missing out on a trophy!"

* * *

The three of them arrived back at the TARDIS about ten minutes later and Keith pushed on the door, wondering whether the other two had returned. The door opened smoothly and they walked in.

The Doctor was at the console, facing away from them, but he gave a wave to them as he fiddled with the buttons on the scanner.

"Hello, you three, are you all okay?" he called.

"Just a few little scrapes, nothing too bad," Keith said. "Laura's cut her hand though – do you have a first aid kit?"

"Ah, you best take her up to the medical bay. Callum's up there just now. The Dalek we were chasing blew itself up and we both got caught by the blast, and he was unfortunate enough to hit a tree."

"Is he alright?" asked Laura, concernedly.

"Oh, he'll be fine," the Doctor nodded. "He's got a few bad bruises though, but they'll go away quickly enough. To get to the medical bay go up those stairs, walk to the end of the corridor til you reach the elevator, then go to the third floor, walk straight ahead and then turn two rights, and that'll take you to a set of big white double-doors. Callum'll be in there!"

"Hm, I'll try and remember that," Keith frowned.

"Yeah, it used to be a lot closer, but I had to jettison the rooms a while back, and when I reactivated the medical bay it ended up there. Quite annoying," he announced, his last words directed at the TARDIS itself.

"Alright then, we best get a move on and get this looked at!"

* * *

After finally finding the medical bay – a large white room full of beds and a large amount of cabinets containing various medicines and medical apparatuses -, Keith and Laura greeted Callum, who was sitting on a white recliner chair, preparing to give himself a painkilling injection.

"Oh, hiya, could one of you get this for me?" he said, indicating the syringe in his hand. "I'm not very good with needles."

"Blimey, you look pretty beat up," Keith noted as he took the syringe from Callum and tapped the crook of his wrist. Callum winced.

"Yeah, well, that's what happens when you're caught in a miniature explosion," he laughed. "You two alright, yeah?"

"Aye, we're fine," nodded Laura. "I just cut my hand a bit, but Dr. Keith here thinks some antiseptic and a plaster will sort me out. Your bruises look pretty bad though."

Callum nodded. He'd taken off his T-shirt to let him get into his injuries easier, and he had managed to rub some alien healing solution on his torso, but his bruises showed no sign of disappearing as quickly as he'd have expected from some alien stuff.

"How long do we have left before the big boom?" Callum asked.

"An hour and fifteen minutes," Laura replied, glancing at the time on her watch. "And we've still got two Daleks to get rid of."

"Ah, hello, up there!" crackled the Doctor's voice over an intercom system. A monitor on the far wall came to life to reveal the Doctor and Cassie, who were probably peering through the monitor in the console room.

"Found anything?" Callum asked, turning round to face the monitor, wincing slightly at the pain. Keith leaned down and injected the painkiller for him.

"Yes," the Doctor nodded. "We've found the location of their hideout from the memory banks of the Dalek that blew itself up in the forest." He stopped for a moment. "And, we found out what the Daleks are planning."

"And what's that?" Keith asked, looking up from placing a plaster over the spot he had injected in Callum's arm. Laura looked over at her boyfriend, impressed by the serious nature he took when practising the first-aid techniques his father had taught him.

"It all centres around the Chernobyl disaster," the Doctor said, gravely, "except now it's not just Chernobyl they're gonna blow up, it's the entire world."


	5. The Dalek Hunt (Part Five)

**A/N - Heyhey, here's the penultimate chapter of this particular episode! I might be super good and get the last chapter up today as well, to give me time to work on Episode Six! Uh, thank you to my usual reviewers and I'm glad you've stuck with me so far! As for bringing Amy back at some point, I'll see if there's anywhere I can fit her in that'll match the story arc I've got going!**

* * *

The three teens exclaimed their surprise in unison, lurching forward to look at the monitor screen, as if unsure whether they had simply misheard what the Doctor had just told them.

"What do you mean?" Callum cried. "How?"

"I'll explain once you three are back down here," the Doctor replied. "We've got just over an hour, so be quick!"

"Alright, we'll be just a sec," Keith nodded, and with that, the monitor blacked out again. "Where's the antiseptic, Cal?"

"Uh, I'll get it," he replied, standing up and sliding his T-shirt back on over his head. He crossed the room and approached another small white door that the other two hadn't noticed before. He pressed a few buttons on a keypad next to it and the door slid open.

"Blimey," said Keith, peeking in behind him. It was a long corridor, lined by drawers with labels on each of them.

"Hey, it's a big universe," Callum shrugged. "The Doctor – or at least the TARDIS – likes to make sure we're fully stocked." He approached a drawer near the door and twisted its handle and with a smooth hiss it slid open.

* * *

Several minutes later, the three of them had returned to the console room. The painkillers had started to take affect and Callum's injuries barely hurt at all now, and Laura's hand had been carefully bandaged up by Keith.

"Ah, you're here!" the Doctor cried, noticing them come down the stairs to the main console. "Excellent! All fixed up?"

"Yup," Callum nodded. "Now I guess you better explain while we still have time!"

"Yes, that's probably for the best," the Doctor nodded, absent-mindedly. "Like I said before, it's not just Pripyat at risk here, it's the entire world!"

"Right, and how are they planning on doing that?"

"They've salvaged parts of the wreckage of their destroyed ship," Cassie explained. "Enough parts to build a device capable of amplifying the radiation around the entire planet."

"Woah, that's not good at all," Keith said, rubbing the back of his neck, as the Doctor twisted the scanner round to show an image of the device from the Dalek's memory banks."

"Nope," Callum agreed. "This is really bad. Are we gonna be able to stop it?"

"Hopefully, yes," nodded the Doctor. "It's just a matter of finding how to get into their base."

"Oh, you found it in the memory banks too?" asked Laura.

"Yes, but it's getting to it that could prove a little difficult," the Doctor nodded. "They've managed to cloak the entrance – and that's not coming up in the memory banks."

"Anyway around that, Doc?" Keith asked. The Doctor looked at him, disapproving of the nickname.

"Not as such," he admitted, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I don't know if the TARDIS would be able to make it in without proper co-ordinates."

Callum started fiddling about with the buttons on the monitor, to adjust the picture of the Dalek's memory banks.

"What if you did that thing where you invert the scanner? Didn't you do that when we accidentally landed in a wall in Athens that one time?" he suggested, trying to remember how the Doctor had done it the last time they'd travelled together.

"Oh, Callum, you're a genius!" the Doctor cried, patting the boy on the head and flattening Callum's messy, caramel bangs. Callum offered him a grin in return before fixing his hair while the Doctor took control of the scanner and started fiddling around with some buttons on the main console. The others looked at him expectantly while he continued to adjust dials and push buttons. "Alright, Callum, go to the multi-purpose trans-dimension-"

"The typewriter, yeah, yeah," interrupted Callum, waving a hand dismissively.

"That's very important technology with a very grand name, I'll have you know, Hendrick," the Doctor cried, pointing at the boy, who stifled a laugh and waited for his next orders. "Alright, Laura, you read out these co-ordinates. Callum, you type them, then type them in reverse order, and then flick the green switch to your... left."

"Okay," Laura nodded, stepping up and bringing the scanner down to her level whilst the Doctor started yanking on levers around the other panels of the console. She began to read them out and Callum began to type.

"Now, you two," the Doctor said, pointing a finger at Cassie and another at Keith, "I want you two to take a panel each, and I'll tell you what to do. This is gonna take a little team effort."

"Got it," Cassie nodded, clearly realising how serious this was, as she didn't even attempt to make a sarcastic comment. Keith took the panel in between Callum and Laura, while Cassie stood to the right of Laura. The Doctor was in charge of the two panels in between Cassie and Callum now.

"Right, as soon as Callum's finished typing up those co-ordinates and pulled the switch, the engines are going to go. I need Keith to adjust the gauge levels using those two blue buttons to keep them steady, and Cassie, you need to hold down that lever and make sure it doesn't get back up. If it does, the damage it could do would be irreversible," the Doctor said, seriously.

"Alright, got it," Keith said, preparing to push down the two buttons.

"Done!" said Callum, flicking the green switch with a flourish. The time rotor suddenly began to rise and fall at a breakneck pace and the lights in the room began to flicker wildly. The room jolted as the wheeze of the TARDIS engines filled it with noise. Callum and Laura clutched onto the railing, while the Doctor, Cassie and Keith did their tasks.

Callum leaned forwards as the room shuddered again and grasped the blue stabiliser lever. He knew that the Doctor didn't like the stabilisers, but they made the inversion go easier.

"Did you touch something?" the Doctor shouted over the din.

"What?" Callum called back, feigning innocence. "Didn't touch a thing!"

The wheezing roar of the TARDIS engines finally calmed itself and the Doctor stepped back from the console, indicating the others could leave their posts. He stepped round to inspect the scanner and giving a small "hm" of satisfaction, he turned to look at them all.

"Okay, we need to be _extremely_ careful here," he said. "These are the last two Daleks, which makes them the most deadly."

"One step ahead of ya, Doc," said Cassie, reaching behind her back and pulling out a larger gun than she'd had before. It seemed to unfold a little more, and several prongs came out at some places along it. All in all, it looked incredibly deadly. "Meet my buddy, Rico."

"_Rico_?!" the others exclaimed in unison, confusion visible on their faces.

"Oh, yeah," she replied, with a wink. "Ex-boyfriend."

"You named your gun after your ex?" Keith gawped.

"If only it were that simp-" she began, before being cut off by the Doctor.

"No, no, no, no," he repeated, shaking his head and waving his hands to signal the end of that particular conversation. "Things to do – important things; Dalek things; no time for gun story things and difficult conversation things!"

"Best get a move on then," Cassie smirked again. "Luckily, Rico here is suited to long-range."

"Hm," said the Doctor, shaking his head again, looking a little incredulous.

* * *

They stepped out of the safety of the TARDIS into a dark underground tunnel, Callum shutting the door behind him. The only source of light now was coming from the backlit sign above the door of the time machine that read: "POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX".

The Doctor withdrew the sonic screwdriver and set it to its torch setting, illuminating the tunnel a little. The ground and walls were solid and dry, and the ceiling seemed safe enough, thankfully.

"Alright, we definitely made it," murmured the Doctor, intentionally keeping his voice quiet. "We've only got a few bends to take from here to get us to the room they've got the device is."

"Unless that Dalek's memory banks were even more screwed than we thought," Callum muttered.

"Aye, well, it's best to stay optimistic when there's homicidal machines on the loose," Keith whispered in response.

"You make a fair point," said Callum, aiming a smile at his best friend, then feeling a little stupid when he realised it was too dark for him to have seen it. He walked up to the front of the group to walk alongside the Doctor as they began to silently make their way down the corridor.

"Half an hour left," Cassie suddenly said, causing them to all turn to look at her.

"Inversion must have shifted us forward in time a little bit," the Doctor frowned. "That's not good. We better be quick!"

And with that, they took off into a run, ignoring the initial plan to be silent as possible. They followed the Doctor down a system of tunnels he had clearly remembered from the Dalek's memory banks. Finally, they arrived at a set of double doors. The Doctor sonicked it with his screwdriver and the doors parted open.

Cassie took the lead as they made their way into this room, with her large gun aimed into the gloomy shadows. This room seemed to be getting little slits of light coming from some bars in the ceiling above, but looking up, they couldn't tell what was really up there. Suddenly, with a strange electronic trill, Cassie's gun died.

"_You cannot stop us! Your weapons are useless within the signal projected in this room,_" burbled a guttural voice from the end of the room. As the Dalek spoke, the bulbs on its dome lit up, illuminating it slightly. Its blue eyestalk lit up and for a moment the group stood still, waiting for it to move. It seemed to realise they were waiting for it before it said, "_My weapon and movement systems are not operational._"

"Still feel better standing over here, cheers," Keith muttered.

"Is this a trap?" Laura asked, looking behind her into the dark tunnel, expecting another Dalek to appear any moment.

"No, I think it's telling the truth," said the Doctor, hesitantly. He took a step towards the Dalek, shining his torch on it.

This Dalek was the most damaged one they had all seen so far. Its gun arm was missing and its bottom half was incredibly mangled and twisted. Several large metal bars had been embedded and trapped within its damaged metal body, and one of its bulbs were flickering of its own accord now.

"Is it just me or do they look even scarier when they're broke?" Keith whispered, squeezing Laura's hand in some sort of attempt to calm her down. She seemed to appreciate the gesture and gave a small nod as she felt herself immediately relax.

"You know who I am," the Doctor said. Not a question, noted Callum.

"_What do you plan to achieve, Doc-tor?_"

"I'm going to stop you."

"_And how do you expect to do that when our plan is almost at fruition?_"

"Because you're going to tell me where the last member of your group is." It wasn't a request, it was an order. Callum was surprised at the Doctor's bluntness.

"_Daleks do not follow orders, Doc-tor!_" screeched the Dalek, and if Callum didn't know better he'd guess that the Dalek was enraged at the Doctor's demand.

"Alright then, I'll save you some time," the Doctor replied, calmly, clasping his hands together as he took another small step towards the Dalek. "It's heading to the reactor, isn't it?"

"_Ho-_"

"Oh, don't even bother," the Doctor laughed, harshly. "The memory banks from the Dalek we found in the forest were enough to show us that the plan is to amplify the explosion of the reactor. It only makes sense that if the device isn't still here it's on its way over to the reactor right now. I'm right, aren't I?"

The room remained deadly silent for several tense seconds that felt like hours. Finally, the Dalek broke the silence.

"_Engage lockdown. Emergency self-destruct!_"

"What?" the Doctor frowned, as if he'd misheard. Then he seemed to realise what the Dalek had said and yelled for the others to run for the door, which suddenly slammed shut behind them.

"What are we gonna do?!" cried Keith, kicking the door furiously as the Dalek began to shake violently. Cassie growled and joined them in pushing the door as the Doctor frantically started to sonic it.

"_Self-destruction in 10 rels._"

"Doctor, if you have a back-up plan, now would be a great time for it to be introduced!" groaned Callum, pushing the door with his back, to no avail.

"_9 rels. 8 rels. 7 rels._"

"Doctor!" Callum cried again, while the Doctor continued to sonic the doorway.

"Nearly got it, just a few more seconds!"

"I don't think we've got that long, Doc!" yelled Keith.

"_4 rels. 3 rels. 2 rels. 1 rel._"


	6. The Dalek Hunt (Part Six)

**A/N - Last chapter of ****_The Dalek Hunt_****! I'm gonna try and get a chapter or two out each Thursday from now on, but I'm making no guarantees! Thanks to everyone who's read or reviewed either Part One or Part Two so far! (I feel like I should apologise a little for this chapter as I don't think it's as good as it could have been. I might go back and rewrite it at some point - I'm not sure.)**

* * *

The doors separated only a moment before the Dalek exploded, and the five time travellers hit the cold, hard ground as debris rained down on them. There was a sudden rumble from above them and the Doctor immediately picked himself up.

"The roof's going to cave in!" he cried. "We need to get back to the TARDIS right now!"

"Get a move on then!" roared Callum and Keith in unison, already bolting down the tunnel with Laura and Cassie giving chase immediately after. Regardless of the situation they were in, the Doctor allowed himself a tiny smile as he bolted after them into the dark tunnel systems again.

* * *

Piling into the TARDIS, Cassie and the Doctor made their way up to the console while the three teens tried to rub the dust from their clothes. Keith's red hair was momentarily hidden by a small cloud of grey dust as he shook his head, to get it all loose.

"Well, that was fun," Callum commented, walking up the stairs to join the Doctor and Cassie.

"_Fun_? Aye, well, I'm not sure we have the same definition of 'fun' anymore, Cal," Keith sniffed. "I'm bloody shaking!" Laura stifled a laugh and gave him a quick hug before following Callum up to the console. Keith rolled his eyes and trailed behind her, muttering something about a shower.

"We have about twenty-three minutes to get to the reactor and stop that Dalek – it's a big place so we're gonna have to split up again. You two," - he pointed at Keith and Laura - "give Callum your phones for a second. Hendrick, set them up, will you?"

"Got it," nodded Callum, taking the sonic screwdriver from the Doctor and his two friends' phones. The Doctor, meanwhile, got straight to business, adjusting the console and preparing to take off. Cassie had sat down on one of the pilot seats, looking rather displeased at not getting the chance to use 'Rico'.

Callum finished his work and handed his friends' their phones back, before passing the sonic screwdriver back to the Doctor.

"Okay, so what did you do?" Keith frowned, looking at his phone. "Does that screwdriver thing do top-ups or something?"

"Nope, even better than that," Callum grinned. "You can now phone anywhere in time and space – as long as you know the area code of course."

"Oh."

"Wow, that's amazing!" Laura cried. "You're gonna have to explain the science behind that to me at some point."

"I would if I understood it," Callum laughed. "The Doctor likes to keep some trade secrets, y'know!"

"Very true," the Doctor piped in as the time rotor began its rhythmic rise and fall motion. He done a little spin on the spot before diving round to adjust something else. "Anyway, this is the plan, I'll land us outside the reactor and we each split up. We have twenty-one minutes to find that Dalek!"

"Got it," the three teens said in unison, nodding determinedly. Cassie gave a brief nod too.

"What if the workers try to stop us?"

"If the Dalek's already there, I don't think the workers will be much of an issue," the Doctor said, gravely.

* * *

The TARDIS materialised on the grounds of the imposing nuclear reactor. Callum felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise, and the goosebumps rising on his arms.

"It's so... scary," said Laura, quietly.

"No time to stare, kiddies," Cassie piped up, unperturbed by the complex before them. "We've got us a Dalek to hunt!"

"Right, Cassie and I will take the main entrance," the Doctor said, "and then we'll split up once we get inside. As for you three, split up and try and find another entrance. If we haven't found anything in the next fifteen minutes, we get back into the TARDIS."

"Alright, good luck," said Callum, bolting off towards the large towers. _I hope it's safe just now_, he thought to himself.

* * *

The corridors were silent as Callum crept his way along. The lights were throbbing on and off, casting everything in a strange orange glow. He hoped they didn't have anything to do with the reactor going off.

The metal floor clunked beneath his every step, echoing against the walls. It was incredibly warm, and jets of steam were blasting from another corridor to his left. He continued walking forwards, however, unsure of going into any areas he couldn't see directly ahead of him in case they were dangerous.

_Hm, the whole planet's at risk and I'm worrying about myself_, he thought. _Priorities, Callum, priorities._

It wasn't much longer before he found the first body. At the end of the corridor a man lay face down on the metal floor, in his work uniform. A large scorch mark on his back indicated that this last Dalek still had firepower. Callum stepped over the man, horrified, and walked through a set of double-doors before dialling the number the Doctor was now using. Several rings later, the Doctor finally picked up.

"Doctor, it's Callum! I'm out near, uh," - he looked round for some indication of his location before noticing a sign on the wall across from him - "Reactor 4! The Dalek's been this way!"

"_Alright, Callum, wait there and I'll get the others and we'll come meet you!_" the Doctor replied, before hanging up.

* * *

It only took the others several minutes to reach Callum, which he was pretty glad of, as he didn't like the thought of being alone and coming across any more bodies.

"Alright, Reactor 4," the Doctor said, quietly. "This is where it's all going to go off in thirteen minutes."

Keith and Laura exchanged fearful glances, and Callum bit his lip with worry.

"Ready?" Cassie asked, withdrawing 'Rico' from behind her back again.

"As we'll ever be," Laura gulped.

They quickly ran over to the corridor that lead down towards the Reactor, adrenaline keeping them going, with Cassie taking the lead. Another set of double-doors were right ahead, and they knew that on the other side was the last Dalek. They reached the doors and with an almighty kick, Cassie sent the doors swinging open. They burst into the room, with Cassie pointing her gun at... a glass screen?

They were in some sort of control booth with a window that was looking into an adjoining room. The Doctor motioned for the three teens to stay where they were, and slowly, he and Cassie approached the window. The Dalek was indeed there, adjusting the strange device it had created that would bring about the end of the world.

Cassie prepared to shoot, but she was interrupted by the Doctor.

"If you shoot that screen," he whispered, "the radiation from that chamber will leak in here and kill us all! We need to be clever about this."

"Judging from its power readings on my wristband, it's weapons won't be enough to break that glass either, so we're safe from it unless it comes out here," Cassie said, reading off of the device on her wrist.

"If we can get it into the de-radiating chamber in between these two rooms," the Doctor said, pointing at a steel hatch on the other side of the room, "I might be able to do something about it."

"And how are you gonna do that?" asked Keith from the doorway.

"I've got all the buttons right here," the Doctor replied. "Should only take about ten seconds."

"Alright then," replied Keith, jumping over to the steel hatch before anyone could stop him. He was through it in a second and shutting it behind him.

"Keith, what the hell are you doing?!" cried Laura, pounding on the hatch and peering through the small port-hole window.

"I'm the bait, silly," Keith said, as if it were the most sensible idea in the world. "We've got less than ten minutes, baby, we can't afford to waste any time."

"If you get killed, I'll kill you," she growled through the door. "Got it?"

"Loud and clear, ma'am," he replied.

"You're insane, Keith, y'know that?" Callum said.

"I'd have to be to be friends with you, Hendrick," Keith laughed before disappearing.

"What the hell is he playing at?" the Doctor cried as Keith ran up to the other door and started punching and kicking it. The Dalek, which had been to pre-occupied with its device to notice them before, was suddenly incredibly alert and it turned to face the doorway.

"_Intruders must be exterminated!_" it screeched, making its way towards the door. Keith pulled back and bolted back up to the other side of the chamber.

Callum and Laura watched through the viewing window, both amazed at Keith's bravery. They watched as the Dalek pressed its sucker against the hatch and it began to turn.

"Keith, get out of there now!" roared the Doctor who was furiously operating the different controls, as the door into the radiation chamber began to open. Keith opened the other door at the same time and slammed it shut behind him, and with the flick of a switch from the Doctor, the other door sealed shut too, trapping the Dalek in the anti-radiating chamber.

"_What is the meaning of this treachery? Explaaain! Explaaaain!_"

"No such luck," the Doctor replied, pressing another button. There was a sudden crackling sound of electricity and they peered through the viewing window into the radiation chamber as the Dalek's device began to dissolve.

"What'd you do?" asked Callum.

"Increased the radiation surge by about 5000 percent," the Doctor replied. "Needed to make sure the Dalek was away from it to ensure it wasn't protected, but now I can open that door and flood that cha-"

He was presently interrupted by a blast tearing the steel door off its hinges.

"Hiccup in the plan?" asked Cassie, cocking her gun.

"Yes, I suppose you could say that," the Doctor said, backing away. They all made their way back towards the doors as the Dalek emerged from the anti-radiating chamber.

"Hah, that shot was the last of its attack power," smirked Cassie.

"Yes, but it _has_ just been in a radiation chamber," the Doctor pointed out. "It's still radioactive."

"Why isn't it attacking?" asked Laura, as the Dalek came to a halt in the ruined control room. Its eyestalk, its plunger arm and its gun arm were all moving erratically.

"_R-r-r-r-r-r-r-radiation overload. S-s-s-s-s-systems c-c-corrupted!_"

"What's happening?!" cried Keith, looking as confused as the others. The Dalek began to make a horrific noise somewhere in between a cackle of laughter and a scream of pain.

"_Oooooh, I see it all now,_" it cooed. "_The insanity of a Dalek sees what angels and demons fail to_."

"That doesn't sound the same as it did before," Cassie frowned, lowering her gun slightly. "I've never seen a Dalek behave like this."

"I have," the Doctor replied. "Dalek Caan, the last of the Cult of Skaro, who was driven insane by flying straight into the Time War through an emergency temporal shift. This Dalek's had its mind broken by the radiation. It was already damaged from the crash, so it would only make sense that its not been able to repel the radiation levels like it could in its normal condit-"

"_Callum Hendrick,_" the insane Dalek crowed. "_Oh, they're looking for the Triangle, and it... oh it's going to fall!_"

It began to giggle gleefully, and Callum felt his blood run cold.

"The... the Triangle?"

"_Ahahahahaha!_" It began to shake violently.

"Cassie, for God sake," Keith yelled, "hurry up and shoot it before it goes Hulk on us!"

Cassie snapped to her senses and lifted her gun up again, and with a single shot the insane Dalek was ripped apart by a beam of red light.

There was no time for celebrations however, as an alarm began to whoop from Cassie's wristband.

"We have five minutes to get away from here!" she cried, putting her gun back behind her back and gesturing for the others to follow her back up the corridor, as another alarm began to wail nearby.

"_Problems in Reactor 4, someone please report and run a check_," crackled a voice over an intercom in the corner of the room they ran back into.

Callum's heart felt like it was in his throat as they made their way along the corridors. For a horrible moment he thought they were lost, but the Doctor managed to find the doors that lead onto the grounds and the five of them burst through, almost tripping over each other in the process.

* * *

The last stretch from the doors to the TARDIS felt like the longest half minute of Callum's life, but eventually they arrived in the safety of the familiar blue box. The Doctor made one last little leap to get to the console so as to pilot them away from the imminent disaster. The three teens slumped to the floor by the closed doors, panting heavily, while Cassie sat down on one of the stairs to catch her breath.

"That... was... far... too... close... for... comfort," wheezed Callum, in between taking deep lungfuls of air.

"Jeez, that was crazy," Laura breathed. "Just a few seconds more and we'd have been done for!"

"Never... again," croaked Keith, pointing into the air, defiantly. "I've never felt so drained... in my life!"

"Everyone all right then?" the Doctor asked, looking rather saddened. Almost a century of time travel and he still wasn't accustomed to the death and suffering. If he was honest with himself, he probably never would be.

"I think so, yeah," sighed Callum, pushing himself up off the floor.

"Nothing a shower won't fix," Keith added, sitting up.

"Excellent! Well then, Cassie, where are we dropping you off?" the Doctor said, turning to face the suddenly weary-looking Time Agent.

"Are you okay?" asked Laura. The young woman looked up at them.

"Vonitius Bandi," she said. "52nd century, or thereabouts."

"Ah, lovely place! Taking a holiday?" the Doctor said, smiling a little at her before going back up to the console to set a course.

"Early retirement," Cassie replied, standing up and returning a smile. "This was my last mission from the Time Agency."

"Well, I hope you enjoy your retirement!" Callum smiled.

"Thanks, kid," she winked. "Thank you all for your help today."

"All in a day's work," the Doctor called. "We'll be on the most famous coast of Vonitius Bandi any second," - the time rotor stopped - "now!"

He gestured to the doors with a flourish.

"Thank you for travelling with TARDIS Airlines, we do hope you enjoyed your trip," Keith said in a perfect imitation of a cabin crew member on an airplane.

They followed her out of the TARDIS doors onto a beach of baby blue sand. It was early evening and the green sunset shone off of the dark blue waters. Stars were beginning to appear in the evening sky and the smell of sea salt and ice cream filled the scene.

"Oh, yes, this'll do nicely," Cassie said, putting her hands on her hips and inhaling the sea breeze. She then turned to face them. "Goodbye, guys!"

"Never goodbye, Cassie," the Doctor said, shaking his head. "Til the next one?"

"Oh, I don't see why not," she replied, and pressed a kiss to his cheek. She followed suit with the other two boys, and gave Laura a hug before pulling away and giving a two-finger salute. "Til the next one."

And with that, she began to walk along the beach, into her future.

The Doctor and the three teens stood in the doorway of the TARDIS, gazing out at the ocean for several more minutes, in a comfortable silence, before finally, Keith gave in.

"Alright, someone show me where the nearest bathroom is! My bladder's about to burst and I'm in need of a bath!"

The other three laughed loudly, and the Doctor stepped away from the door and up to the console. The three teens followed him, and Laura shut the doors behind them.

"Okay, Callum, you show them where the bathroom is while I set the co-ordinates," the Doctor said. "I suppose I better let you three get your bags, that is, if you still want to stay?"

"Of course we do!" cried Keith.

"Can't get rid of us that easily," Laura smiled.

"Yup, you're stuck with us from here on out, Doctor!" Callum beamed. The Doctor smiled.

"Well, then," he said, "next stop: Glasgow!"

And with the flick of a switch, they were off again - in their little blue box, rattling through the time vortex.


	7. Meanwhile in the TARDIS 5

**A/N - Hey! Here's the bridge between ****_The Dalek Hunt _****and the next episode: ****_Fire and Ice_**** - which shall have its first part posted next Thursday! I've decided that as opposed to just 8 episodes, I'm gonna double it to 16! But yeah, enjoy this for now! **

* * *

The TARDIS hurtled through the time vortex at breakneck speed, zooming back to 2013. The Doctor had promised that after their little mission to Pripyat, he would let them return home and get their belongings to bring onboard the TARDIS.

"What do you think that Dalek meant when it said about the Triangle?" Keith was asking, as the console room shook slightly from turbulence.

"I'm not really sure," the Doctor said, frowning. "It rings a bell, though."

"Yeah, actually," Callum agreed. "I'm sure I've heard about it somewhere before."

"Oh, it's probably just a coincidence," Laura dismissed. "That Dalek was damaged by the radiation, remember? It was probably just confused."

"Yeah, I guess," Keith murmured, deep in thought.

At that moment, the time rotor paused its movement and the room came to a still.

"Well, here we are," the Doctor said, cheerfully. "Laura's house. If you jump out just now, Laura, I can take the two boys to their houses and then come pick you up again."

"Sounds like a plan," Laura smiled. "See you in a minute!" She kissed Keith lightly on the mouth and skipped down the stairs and out of the TARDIS.

"Next stop: Keith's," the Doctor said. "Set the co-ordinates for me, will you, Hendrick?"

"Okie doke," Callum replied, standing up from his seat and walking over to the nearest panel. With a flick of a switch, the TARDIS roared into life again and they flew off.

"So where are we gonna go after we've got our stuff?" Keith asked, from his seat on the glass stairs leading to the TARDIS' maze of rooms.

"Not a clue yet," the Doctor replied, as he tried to adjust the scanner. "Hm, I thought this would have started working again once we left Pripyat."

"What's up with it?" asked Keith, standing up and jumping round to join the Doctor in inspecting the scanner.

"Gone all wibbly, hasn't it?" the Doctor replied, pointing at the strange spinning symbols that were flashing in strange colours.

"We've landed," Callum said from the other side of the console. "Don't take forever, Keith!"

"I won't," laughed Keith. "See you in a sec."

"Now for me," Callum smiled, as his sandy-haired friend gave them a wave and stepped out the door. He pulled a few levers on the console and sighed, contently.

"Glad to be back?" the Doctor asked.

"Definitely," Callum replied, happily. "It's a shame Amy's not with us anymore though!"

"Yes," the Doctor agreed, with a sad smile. "She was the only one who wasn't scared of using that monstrosity of a kettle."

Callum laughed. "Yeah, she was amazing at making tea! We had so many good times! D'you think she'll ever come back?"

"I'm not sure," the Doctor admitted. "The situation is a little difficult."

"How do you mean?" Callum asked, confused. The Doctor hadn't mentioned anything about a _situation_ when he'd mentioned Amy before.

"Well, you see, it's a pretty long story," the Doctor said. "It all started when I got a letter from my future self."

"Wait, what?" Callum frowned.

"Yes, I know, it's that level of _long_," the Doctor laughed. "After you left, Amy and I travelled alone for a while, met Vincent van Gogh and some other stuff, and then the Universe stopped existing."

"Wait, what?" Callum cried.

"Oh, don't worry, I restarted it," the Doctor said. "But I was trapped on the other side of the cracks in the Universe, but then Amy remembered me on her wedding day, and I got brought back into existence!"

"Sounds a little complicated, Doctor," Callum frowned, scratching his head.

"It's not _that_ complicated," the Doctor laughed. "Anyway, after that, I took them a few places for their honeymoon, then dropped them off at home. But a few months later, I received a letter, telling me to come to America, April, 2012. I met Amy, Rory and River there, and they all seemed a little... different, but I just thought they were glad to see me after so long!" He took a moment to smile sadly again. "After that, it all got a little out of hand."

"How come?"

"Well, we ended up travelling back to 1969 where we took on a mission to solve the mystery of a little girl who was phoning President Nixon. And after that my memory goes a little sketchy. But it was something to do with a religious group called the Silence."

"Oh..."

"Yes, I know, I'm still a little in the dark about that whole thing, but afterwards, Amy and Rory travelled with me for a while, and _then_ I noticed Amy had been kidnapped and replaced with a... sort of clone – a Flesh double. The real Amy was pregnant and had been abducted by the Silence, and taken to their base in Demon's Run. After that whole situation, we all discovered that River Song was actually Rory and Amy's daughter: Melody Pond."

"I'm finding this all a little difficult to keep up with," Callum admitted. "So, Amy has a baby now?"

"Yes," the Doctor said. "Wait, well, no, sort of! Baby Melody was taken away by the Silence and she grew up in the past, alongside Amy and Rory, as their best friend 'Mels'."

"So wait, they named her daughter after... her daughter?" Callum laughed, finding it all a little too complicated for his liking.

"Yes, exactly!" the Doctor cried. "Anyway, as I was saying, baby Melody was gone and I set out to try and find her, a few months later, Amy and Rory called me back to Earth where we... encountered Mels. She held me at gunpoint and she even shot the TARDIS! We ended up crashing into Adolf Hitler's office and," - he sounded rather embarrassed – "sort of accidentally saved his life."

"Oh, blimey..."

"Yes, well, turned out it was a Tesselecta – a sort of shape-shifting, time-travelling robot controlled by miniaturized people. Mels got shot, and, uh, regenerated into River."

"Wait, what? She regenerated?!"

"Ah, yes, did I forget to mention the bit where she was part-Time Lord?"

"What? How?!" Callum cried, incredulously.

"Um, exposure to the time vortex during concep-"

"Okay, woah, stop right there," Callum said, waving a hand in indication for the Doctor to stop talking.

"Ah, yes, well, you asked!" the Doctor cried, looking rather embarrassed.

"Yeah, well, you could have told me something else!" said Callum, his expression matching the Doctor's. "Anyway, carry on."

"Yes, well, after River regenerated she tried to kill me a few times," the Doctor said. "And finally she managed to poison me with the poison of the Judas tree, which suspends any regeneratitive abilities in any species, which basically meant my ability to regenerate was disabled."

"Oh, wait, what? Why did she try to kill you?!" Callum was going to have to try and write this all down later – it was all too much information to soak in at once.

"She'd been taken and trained by the Silence to kill me," the Doctor sighed. "It was all very messy, but eventually everything turned out fine, and now she doesn't want me dead anymore, which is frankly, marvellous."

"Yeah, but what if you meet her earlier in her timeline again?" Callum frowned.

"No, no, no, see the time in Berlin in Hitler's office was the beginning of River's timeline for me. That was the first time we met!"

"Well, I suppose that's alright then," Callum said, raising an eyebrow to indicate his absolute confusion with the whole scenario.

"Yes, well, after that, we left River with the Nurses of the Eternal Schism to recover from using all her regenerations at once to bring me back to life after the poison killed me."

"Wow, okay, that sounds a little touch-and-go," Callum commented. The Doctor chuckled, darkly.

"Yeah, it was worse actually being there," he replied. "Anyway, after that, Amy, Rory and I travelled together for a while until we faced a creature that fed off of a person's faith. Amy's faith was completely in me, so I had to make her lose all of that to save her life. And after that I took them home, because it made me realise that she wasn't just a little girl anymore, she was a married woman with a child, and I had to let her and Rory live their lives."

"How long ago was that?" asked Callum, sadly.

"About twenty years ago," the Doctor admitted, sheepishly.

"Twenty years?!" Callum cried. "So wait, they're back in 1983?"

"No, no, no, I mean it was twenty years ago for me!" the Doctor laughed. "I'm 929 now!"

"Ah, that would explain why you're looking a little more... polished nowadays."

"What?!" the Doctor cried, indignantly. "Are you trying to say I looked scruffy before?"

"Oh, come on, you stole those clothes from a hospital," Callum laughed, good-naturedly. "Amy told me!"

"Well, yes, I may have got a better wardrobe since then," the Doctor pouted. "Anyway, now that that's us all up to date, shall we go get your stuff?"

"Sounds like a plan, and then we can pop back and get the other two."

"On we go then," the Doctor smiled.

"On we go," Callum echoed, happily.

* * *

It only took several minutes before the TARDIS had rematerialised in Laura's living room, after stopping to pick Keith up, and now the two boys were helping Laura carry her bags into the TARDIS.

"Jeez, do you really need this much stuff?" grunted Callum as he dragged two heavy suitcases through the doors.

"A girl's always prepared, Callum," smiled Laura, only carrying a backpack and her large camera bag. "I'm even taking my camera – it's gonna be like one big holiday!"

"People don't tend to take their entire wardrobe on holiday with them, baby," Keith pointed out as he took another suitcase through the doorway. "Thankfully this is the last one."

He dragged it over to the pile of other suitcases and then flopped down next to them. Two of them were Keith's, one suitcase and a backpack belonged to Callum, and the other four suitcases were all Laura's.

"Well, then, I suppose I best show you your rooms then," Callum smiled.

"Oh god, we have to carry them _again_?" groaned Keith.

"Aw, c'mon, you're supposed to be tough now," winked Laura. "My brave boyfriend who blew up a Dalek."

Hiding a blush, Keith mumbled something along the lines of, "Let's get a move on." Callum stifled a laugh and helped lift one of his suitcases and one of Laura's. Keith took two of Laura's – deciding he'd come and get his after he got hers out of the way first.

As they made their way up the stairs, the Doctor looked up from the console, as if noticing them for the first time.

"Oh, there you three are!" he cried, bouncing around them, enthusiastically. "Come on, come on, we've got places to go! People to see!"

"Where to first then, Doc?" asked Keith, earning himself a sharp look from the Time Lord.

"Somewhere relaxing, preferably?" suggested Laura. "I think I've had enough action today to last me!"

"Hm, fair point," agreed Callum. "How about we hit the beach?"

"Ah, an excellent idea," the Doctor said, waggling a finger in no general direction. He spun on the spot and pulled a lever, and the engine noise began to increase. "Off we go!"

The three teens exchanged grins and grabbed onto the railing behind them as their Time Lord pilot bounded around the console, and the TARDIS hurtled off into the time vortex.


	8. Fire and Ice (Part One)

**A/N - Hm, yeah, my update schedule is never particularly definite, but I'm gonna do my best to at least post one or two each week! Here's Part One of ****_Fire and Ice_**** where the Doctor is reunited with some old friends! Reviews would be great! Oh, and due to a little confusion, this story is set between ****_The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe_**** and ****_Asylum of the Daleks_**** in the Doctor's perspective. Originally this was to just take part after ****_Closing Time_**** but in the series chronology, it's much easier just to move the timeline on a bit!**

**Review-y Reply Part!**

_**The10thDoctorRocks - **_**Yup, the story arc is gonna start to crop up a lot more as the series progresses! Glad you like it so far!**

_**Canned it 2011-2012 **_**- Hm, I ****_am _****actually considering a sequel to this story arc with Callum rejoining the Doctor and Clara, but I'll wait and see how this story goes, and how Series 7 Part 2 pans out too!**

* * *

"Where are we going?" yelled out Keith Whyte as the TARDIS lurched violently.

"I'm not quite sure," the Doctor admitted, taking off his tweed jacket and throwing it onto the pilot seat, before turning back to try and operate the console. "There's been an atmospheric disturbance from somewhere on Earth, and for some reason the old girl thinks it's important!"

"The _old girl_?" Keith cried back, grasping on to a railing.

"It's one of his pet names for the TARDIS," explained Callum Hendrick, appearing at the top of the stairs. He had just got dressed after his shower, and his hair was still slightly damp, making it look darker than its usual shade of caramel.

"Oh, there you are!" the Doctor cried. "What took so long?"

"The bathroom moved itself again," Callum replied, carefully jumping down the stairs and helping the Doctor with steering. "Ended up down at the tennis courts."

"Oh, that's quite a distance off," the Doctor frowned. "I think its the TARDIS' sense of humour, to be honest."

"Well, she got me good!" Callum said. "Three times now! Time before I ended up in one of those old console rooms she keeps archived."

"Hm, yes, though I could swear all those rooms had been deleted."

"Hey, you three, what's happening?" piped Laura McKinroy, the final member of the current TARDIS crew, as she appeared from the stairs Callum had just came down. A strand of her wavy blonde hair was pinned back in a way that reminded Callum of Amy Pond. He still missed her.

"Atmospheric disturbance or something like that," said Keith, waving a hand dismissively.

"Hm, yeah, it's rather odd," the Doctor said, throwing a look at the red-haired boy. "Ah, I've locked on! What does the scanner say?"

"Uh, Earth... England... Somewhere near a place called Brockwood Heath."

"Ah, alright then," nodded the Doctor. "Better set a course!"

The TARDIS lurched again and Callum felt an uncomfortable tugging sensation in his stomach.

"Bleh, that was horrible," Keith exclaimed, clutching his own stomach.

"Hm, we slipped a time track," the Doctor said, glaring up at the other large screen on the wall behind him, which was currently displaying a visual of the time vortex outside the TARDIS doors. "Back an hour within our own timestream."

"That doesn't make much sense to me," Laura admitted, sheepishly. "Is that bad?"

"Oh, not at all," the Doctor cried, clapping his hands together suddenly as he turned to look at his three young companions. "Well, except for the _landing_ part."

"The landing part?" they echoed in unison, suddenly looking rather uneasy.

"Yes," the Doctor replied, looking quite flustered now. "You see, when I steer the TARDIS out of its own timestream, there'll be a certain amount of turbulence."

"I suppose we might as well get it over with then," said Callum, hiding a smile. The Doctor's driving really was awful sometimes.

"Alright then," the Doctor cried, grabbing on to the console as a loud metal grating noise came from beneath them. "Hold tight!"

The three teens grabbed on to the console, as what felt like an earthquake shook through the console room. Callum looked up to see that through the tremoring, there appeared to be two copies of the same room – one only just out of focus from the current one. Looking at the others, he could see the faint outline of their other time-line just beside them, and then with another screech of metal-on-metal from beneath them, the out of focus outlines flashed and disappeared, and the room went crazy, as the lights began to flicker wildly, and the console flashed and wheezed and a flurry of sparks erupted from under the glass floor.

"What's happening?!" yelled Laura over the din. "Is this meant to happen?"

"Oh, it's all perfectly fine!" the Doctor shouted back, moments before a panel on the console exploded and the glow from the time rotor began to flicker like the rest of the lights.

"You call _that_ perfectly fine?" Keith roared as smoke began to erupt from the console.

"Shut up and hold on!" the Doctor ordered, hitting down on the panel in front of him. "_Geronimo_!"

* * *

The next several minutes were a blur to Callum, as all he could remember was the TARDIS smashing to its destination, hurtling the entire room to the side and sending its occupants across the room.

The fall had hurt incredibly badly, as he'd smacked straight off the railings and fell right over the side, splitting open one of the wounds he had sustained the previous week in the aftermath of an exploding Dalek, which was an annoyance as it had almost completely healed.

He was now sitting on the ground, leaning his back against a tree, as he coughed up the smoke he had inhaled in the console room. Keith and Laura were crouched on the ground beside him. Laura asked him if he was alright, while Keith frowned at the sight of the Doctor battling through the smoke billowing through the doors of the TARDIS.

"Extractor fans are offline!" he said as he approached them, flailing his arms to bat the smoke out of his face. "And the console's gone into temporary shutdown while she recalibrates herself. Should only take a few hours." He coughed a little. "Are you three alright?"

"Well, my head's pounding," said Keith, rubbing the back of his head, "but besides that I'm fine."

"I'm alright," nodded Laura. "One of Callum's wounds has reopened though."

"Hm, that's not good," the Doctor frowned. "Is it bad?"

"Nah, it'll be fine," Callum said. "It's only a little blood – nothing too bad."

"Hm, still, perhaps we should try and find somewhere nearby where we can get help," the Doctor suggested.

"Nearest house is about a half hour walk if we landed where the scanner said we would," said Callum, shaking his head and giving a lopsided, reassuring smile. "Let's go see if we can find what's caused that atmospheric disturbance."

"Well, if you're sure," the Doctor said, not sounding completely sure himself.

"Wait a sec," Keith suddenly said, jumping up on his feet, "if that house isn't too far from here, would it not make sense to go see if _that's_ the source?"

"You do make a fair point," the Doctor nodded. "It's a pity the TARDIS is offline for now, so we're going to have to go on foot." The three teens nodded in response and Keith offered Callum a hand to lift him up, while the Doctor went over and locked the TARDIS doors. "Fortunately, the extractor fans should kick back in as soon as the console goes back online. Shall we then?"

* * *

They had landed in a glade on the very edge of the forest, and it only took them about a minute or so to navigate their way through the greenery and out onto a large field. It had started to rain lightly, and the sky above them was overcast and grey. Just a little in the distance, several fields away, a large country house sat, surrounded by trees. From what they could make out of it, Callum assumed it was some sort of old-fashioned manor house.

The Doctor put a hand over his eyes and squinted up into the clouds, before making a little grunt of frustration.

"What is it?" asked Laura, as the two boys copied the Doctor's actions, as if hoping that would help them understand.

"I can't see anything," the Doctor sighed. "There's too many clouds to see what's going on up there!"

"And what d'you reckon's going on up there then?" asked Keith.

"Not a clue, but I have a gut feeling it isn't good."

"What are we thinking then? Spaceships? Invaders? Lost tourists?" Callum suggested.

"Hm, no, that atmospheric disturbance was intentional. Well, unintentional in the sense that it was meant to draw our attention to it, but intentional in the sense that whatever's going on, it's definitely not good."

As if to emphasise his point, there was a sudden rumble of what appeared to be thunder up above, and the clouds began to shift.

"What the hell's going on?!" yelled Keith as the rumbling got louder. They gazed upwards in shock as a large blast of red lightning crashed down on the house, with a collosal smash. They shielded their eyes against the blinding red light, and after it had faded, the lightning had disappeared, and the Doctor was already halfway across the field, running in the direction of the house.

"This can't be good," said Callum as the three of them gave chase to the Time Lord. Laura and Keith looked at him and both nodded in agreement.

* * *

Once they had arrived at the house, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. The rain had stopped, and in the distance – behind the forest they had landed in – sunlight was trying to break through the clouds.

The Doctor had been first to arrive and was now waving the sonic screwdriver about, pointing it upwards in the sky.

"What are you doing?!" yelled a voice from the house. The three teens joined the Doctor on looking up a small flight of stairs to see a plump, irritated looking boy who could be no older than fourteen standing with his podgy hands on his hips. He was wearing a school uniform by the looks of it, and Callum made a guess that he probably attended a private school.

The Doctor continued gazing at him, looking a little dumbstruck.

"Well?" the boy said.

"Uhhh..."

"Don't worry, Eric," said a voice from behind the boy. "They're here with me." A woman stepped out onto the stairs and smiled at the Doctor. She was about middle-aged, with shoulder-length brown hair, wearing a grey leather jacket over a white blouse. The Doctor gazed at her, now in genuine shock.

"Sarah Jane?!" he exclaimed, looking incredibly confused.

"Hello, Doctor," the woman replied, her smile widening as she hopped down the stairs and pulled the Time Lord into a hug.

"You two know each other?" exclaimed Keith, looking as confused as the Doctor had moments before.

"Ah, yes, introductions!" the Doctor said, returning the hug to the woman before letting go. "Callum Hendrick, Keith Whyte, Laura McKinroy, meet an old friend of mine, Sarah Jane Smith!"

"Hello there!" the woman said, kindly. "Are you the latest additions to the TARDIS crew then?"

"Yup," Callum laughed. "It's on-"

"Hey, Sarah Jane, Rani reckons she's foun..." trailed off a dark-skinned boy, coming out of the building behind the chubby boy, Eric, who was still standing with his hands on his hips. He looked to be around the same age as Callum and Keith. "Hey, it's the Doctor!"

"Clyde Langer!" the Doctor cried. "Good to see you! Anyway, I assume you're all here for the same reason as us then?"

"Wait a second, didn't you say they were here with you?" Eric butted in before Sarah Jane had a chance to reply. Clyde shot him a look.

"Shouldn't you be somewhere else right now?" he growled. The fat boy glared at him and marched into the manor, slamming the door behind him.

"So what was it that brought you here, anyway?" asked Sarah Jane. "Mr Smith traced an atmospheric disturbance here over three hours ago, so Clyde, Rani, Sky and I decided to head out here and investigate. We're only about an half hour drive from Ealing, anyway."

"Hm, yes, I should've realised that would probably appeal to you," the Doctor nodded, a little smile curling the sides of his mouth. "The TARDIS registered an atmospheric disturbance too, and then we had a bit of a funny landing a-"

"Dunno if 'funny' is the word I'd use for it," said Keith.

"More of a traumatising and potentially dangerous landing," Callum joked, with a mock-serious expression.

"Yes, well, back to the matter at hand, eh?" the Doctor said, rolling his eyes. "We saw the red lightning a few minutes ago. It struck the house, didn't it?"

"Nope," said Clyde, shaking his head. "Somewhere behind the house, but we all saw it too, except that kid, Eric."

"Yes, you see, I'm pretending to be doing an article on the manor, and Eric's parents were fine with it, but as for him," Sarah Jane said, "he's been a little annoying. Anyway, Clyde, you were saying that Rani found something?"

"Yeah!" he replied, gesturing for them to follow him into the house. "She said she'd found a good viewpoint of where the lightning had struck. Follow me!"


	9. Fire and Ice (Part Two)

**A/N - Hey, sorry for being a week late with updating - my wi-fi cut off, so at least you get two chapters instead of just the one!**

**Review-y Reply Bit**

**Canned it 2011-2012 - Hm, well without spoiling too much, coming up there's two or three old enemies coming back, plus some brand new ones, of course!**

**The10thDoctorRocks - Yup, I've been meaning to find a story I could have Sarah Jane and her gang in for a while now, and this one just seemed to work into it!**

* * *

The manor was just as grand on the inside as it had looked from the exterior, with thick red carpets, wood-panelled walls and extravagantly patterened wallpapers. The Doctor was in conversation with Sarah Jane, as the five of them climbed the wooden staircase up several floors, following Clyde.

"So who d'you reckon she is then?" Keith murmured.

"They seem like they're good friends," Laura noted, "but there was a look in her eyes when she first came outside, like she couldn't believe she was seeing him."

"She used to travel with him," Callum said. "I knew I recognised her name! It's in a book in the TARDIS library that I read one night when I'd just started travelling with the Doctor and Amy! If I remember properly, she helped as his assistant for a while when he was still working as a scientific advisor to this military kinda place called UNIT."

"Yes, that's right," Sarah Jane said, looking back at the three teens. "We had so many adventures in that old TARDIS! It's been quite a while since I last saw the Doctor actually! Two years or so now, in fact."

"It's just through here!" said Clyde, motioning for them to follow him through a set of polished wood double doors at the end of the corridor. Stepping through, they found themselves on a balcony running along the outer side of the manor, looking out across the fields.

A tall girl with long dark hair tied in a ponytail and a younger looking girl with a tangle of blondey-brown hair were already standing on the balcony, looking out in the direction of a darker looking field not far away.

The two girls turned as they stepped out onto the balcony, and the older girl gave a gasp of surprise.

"Doctor, it's you!" she exclaimed.

"Rani Chandra, long time no see!" the Doctor smiled. "Callum, Keith, Laura, this is Rani! And you," he said to the smaller girl, "must be Sky! Sarah Jane was filling me in on the way upstairs."

"Hello!" the small girl beamed. "Sarah Jane's told me so much about you! I never thought I'd actually get to meet you, wow!"

"Hiya," said Callum to the two girls, while Keith gave a two-fingered wave as a greeting, and Laura smiled and said, "It's nice to meet you all!"

"Anyway, what is it we're looking at exactly?" the Doctor said, brandishing the sonic screwdriver and leaning over the balcony, looking out at the fields.

"The hedges over there," said Sky, pointing out at several tall dark hedges. "It's a giant maze!"

"Blimey, that's massive!" exclaimed Keith, squinting to see just how far the maze went on for.

"Can't even see the other side of it from here," noted Rani. "They haven't used it in years though. Mrs MacTarn, Eric's mum, was telling me earlier."

"Hm, interesting," nodded the Doctor. "And didn't they notice the lightning?"

"The MacTarns left about half an hour ago to go on a business trip, and most of the staff are downstairs," said Sarah Jane. "Eric was down in the games room, so I'm assuming he never noticed."

"Right then," the Doctor said, inspecting the sonic screwdriver thoughtfully, "I say we go investigate!"

"One step ahead of you," called Callum, already halfway down the corridor, with Keith and Clyde close behind. The Doctor, Sarah Jane and the three girls looked after them in amusement for a moment, before giving chase.

* * *

The rain had started again, and the Doctor took to sonicking upwards into the sky again as they reached the edge of the lawns, leading on to a gravel path that split into three separate directions.

"What's up?" Callum asked.

"The rain," the Doctor frowned. "There's something odd about it."

"Odd?" repeated Sarah Jane. "How do you mean?"

"I'm not quite sure yet," the Doctor said. "Anyway, three paths, which would logically mean-"

"Three separate paths into the maze," finished Keith. The Doctor shot him a look for cutting him off, before shaking his head slightly and then turning back to the others.

"So are we splitting up or do we go in together?" Rani asked.

"Hm, I suppose that's our best bet for investigating the entire maze," nodded the Doctor. "But first sign of trouble, we get out as quickly as possible."

"What's the worst that could happen?" shrugged Keith, earning himself a collective look of disbelief from the others. "I was joking," he added, mumbling a little.

"Right then, Clyde, Rani, Callum, you three take that path to the left," the Doctor said. "Sarah and I will take this path, and that leaves Keith, Laura and Sky to take the right. Remember, first sign of trouble, get in touch with the others and get out!"

"Got it," nodded Callum, feeling a little unsure of going with these two people he'd only just met. The Doctor seemed to trust them though, so Callum decided it was best to trust them too.

"Be careful, you lot," Sarah Jane said to them, as she and the Doctor separated from them and made their way down the path.

"Will do, Sarah Jane," replied Clyde, as he walked down the left hand path and beckoned for Callum and Rani to follow.

"See you soon," Callum called back to Laura and Keith - the latter looking a little awkward standing beside the younger girl, who was smiling sweetly at them both.

* * *

The maze reminded Callum of the massive one from _Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire_ and his mind was immediately full of images of being attacked by creatures and deadly hedges and vines. Then he remembered he was used to being attacked by strange creatures at this point.

"So, you and your mates, you're with the Doctor, yeah?" Clyde asked him, breaking him out of his trail of thought.

"Oh, yeah! I travelled with him about a year and a half ago, and the three of us ended up travelling with him again about a week ago," replied Callum.

"What's it like?" asked Rani, her eyes sparkling. "The travelling?"

Callum came to a stop as he thought of a good enough reply.

"Know how when you're a kid, and it's Christmas Eve?" he said. "And you're so excited and you can't wait for tomorrow, and you spend the whole of Christmas Eve just bursting with excitement because you know tomorrow's gonna be even better? It's kinda like that, really! You're enjoying every second, but at the same time you know you're gonna get something even better the next day!"

"What sorta stuff have you seen then?" asked Clyde, sharing Rani's sudden expression of captivation.

"Well, uh, all sorts, really! I couldn't choose just one thing to tell you, really, it's all been incredible," laughed Callum.

"You're really lucky," sighed Rani. "We're forbidden from leaving the Earth."

"By Sarah Jane?" asked Callum, as they resumed walking.

"Nah, the Judoon," replied Clyde. "Big police rhino things – it's a long story." Callum looked at them in surprise.

"So you guys deal with aliens and stuff too, then?" he asked, as they turned around another corner.

"Pretty much, yeah," Rani said. "Sarah Jane always says that life on Earth can be an adventure too, but I bet you all get up to much better stuff than we do!"

"Well, by the sounds of it Sarah Jane is right though, you guys probably deal with just the same kinda stuff as we do!"

"Not as often, probably," said Clyde, admittedly. "Sarah Jane said that every day was a new near-death experience when she was with the Doctor! She loved it though," he added. "Always telling us about the stars and planets and stuff."

"It sounds perfect," Rani agreed.

"It really is," Callum smiled. He went to say something else as they turned another corner but then stopped in his tracks again as he noticed something strange. "Hey, look over there!"

Clyde and Rani followed his gaze to one of the hedges, immediately realising what he'd noticed.

Frost was crawling over the hedges, rising from the roots and spreading upwards, with a quiet hissing noise. The three of them turned on the spot to see this happening to the other hedges, as a frosty fog began to rise all around them.

"This can't be good," gulped Clyde.

Suddenly, from somewhere not far off, they heard what sounded like heavy footfalls.

"Either can that," cried Callum. "Run!"

* * *

Meanwhile on the other side of the maze, Keith, Laura and Sky had managed to progress past the stage that Keith didn't feel a little weirded out by the young girl.

"So, you're Sarah Jane's kid then?"

"Sarah Jane adopted me after we stopped the war between the Fleshkind and the Metalkind," Sky replied, matter-of-factly.

"Oh..." Keith said, unable to think of anything better to say.

_Geez, you'd think after the past week or so travelling in the TARDIS, I'd be used to hearing stuff like that_, he thought.

"So you, Sarah Jane, Clyde and Rani do the same sort of thing the Doctor does then? Travelling about and fighting aliens?" Laura asked, as they reached a dead end.

"Ugh, I knew we should've turned left back there," Keith grumbled, as they turned.

"Well, we don't exactly travel," Sky said. "But according to Sarah Jane there's been a big rise in alien activity in the UK over the past ten or so years, so we're only ever really here!"

"Blimey," Keith said. "It's still weird to talk about this sort of thing as if it's normal, y'know?"

Laura nodded in agreement, while Sky just shrugged.

"I guess I'm just used to it," the girl said, happily. "It's the only life I've known, really."

"Oh, look at the ground!" said Laura, suddenly, pointing down at their feet. A thin layer of frost had started to spread across the grassy paths, spreading out and onto the hedges themselves. The world around them had become eerily silent as they stood and observed the frost spread.

Laura felt herself reach for Keith's hand subconsciously and felt a little better when their fingers interlocked.

"What way did we come from again?" he whispered, not wanting to disturb the silence. The fog had clouded the ends of each path now and they all took a step closer together.

"Something isn't right about this," Sky said quietly, suddenly a little nervous.

"Oh, what gave that away?" hissed Keith, sarcastically, earning him a nudge in the ribs from Laura. "Sorry," he said.

"Ignore him," Laura murmured, not taking her eyes off the path ahead of her. "He's a moron when he's scared."

"Who's scared?" Keith retorted, suddenly whimpering as a heavy footfall came from the path directly in front of him. "Okay," he squeaked, as the two girls turned in the direction of the sound, "I'm scared now."

"This way! Quick!" cried Sky, pulling on Keith's sleeve and dragging them down the path she was facing.

* * *

"It's been a long time, Doctor," smiled Sarah Jane, as they made their way towards the centre of the maze. The Doctor's sense of direction proved to be a little off – as per usual – but they seemed to be making progress.

"Oh, you know how it is, Sarah Jane," the Doctor replied, waving a hand about, airily. "Plus you have those three! And Luke, and K9 and Mr Smith!"

"Very true," she nodded, "and I know you don't like the thought of me always waiting on you to come back again."

The Doctor stopped, and gave a sad little smile.

"Oh, Sarah," he said, turning to face her, his smile getting a little brighter, "you know I'm only ever where I'm needed!" She looked back at him and they stared at each other, happily for a moment, before the Doctor's attention was drawn off of his old friend and onto something behind her.

"What is it?" she asked, following his confused gaze.

"Look at the hedge," he murmured, approaching it slowly. A thin layer of frost was crawling over the leaves and branches, and as they watched, it began to cover the ground as well. The Doctor squatted down and scanned the hedge with the sonic screwdriver before observing the readings. "Artificial."

"Artificial?" asked Sarah Jane, leaning over to look at the hedge. "You mean the frost or the hedges?"

"The frost," the Doctor frowned, prodding it with his finger. "Look, it doesn't even crumble. And the speed it progressed at. Hm."

"This must have been caused by that atmospheric disturbance?" Sarah Jane asked. The Doctor nodded.

"Exactly!" he said, straightening up. "Hm, can your watch analyse it?"

"I'm not sure," said Sarah Jane, flipping up the cover of the scanner watch the Doctor had gifted her with after the Krillitane incident. She shook it slightly to see if it would be of any use, before finally shaking her head and looking a tad irritated, pushing the cover back down. "No luck."

"Hm, the TARDIS still won't be fully repaired," the Doctor frowned, before adding, "Bad landing," in explanation at the questioning look Sarah Jane gave him.

"We could take a sample back to Mr Smith," Sarah Jane suggested. "Well, that's if it doesn't melt."

"Ah, excellent idea!" the Doctor smiled. "It won't break off without a little assistance though, so let's see if the sonic will be of any use. And it just so happens I have a cooler pack in my pocket." Adjusting the setting, he held it against the hedge and after a few moments of sonicking, a chunk of the frost slid loose. He dug in one of the pockets of his tweed jackets before removing a strange blue wallet, which he slid the chunk into before pocketing again.

"And you just happened to be carrying that about with you?" said Sarah Jane, amusedly.

"When in a crisis, Sarah Jane, always make sure your jacket has pockets that are bigger on the inside," the Doctor replied in form of an explanation, earning a laugh from the journalist. "Come on, let's get back to the entrance and we can try and contact the others!"

* * *

"Okay, we're definitely lost," cried Clyde as he skidded to a halt beside Callum and Rani. The three of them had ran, not really noticing what path exactly they were taking. They had came across several dead ends, but always managed to double back in time to still stay ahead of the mysterious stomping that was following them.

By now, the entire maze was covered in a pale white layer of frost, and the grassy ground was starting to get slippery every now and then. The fog was getting thicker and it was getting increasingly difficult to tell when a path ended and another began.

"I think we've lost whatever that thing was though," panted Callum, leaning against the cold hedge. Suddenly, he stood back. "Hey, this feels really weird."

"How'd'you mean?" asked Rani, curiously.

"Put your hand against it," Callum said. "It's like... I dunno, really."

"It's as if there's something flowing through it," Rani said, having placed her hand on the hedge beside her.

"What d'you mean?" Clyde frowned. "Like electricity or something?" He placed his hand on the hedge too and his frown deepened before he suddenly cried, "H-hey! My hand's stuck!"

"Mine too!" yelped Rani, trying to pull her hand off the hedge. Callum struggled to take his hand off too and found that some invisible force was holding him to it.

"Okay, this isn't good!" he growled in frustration.

"What are we gonna do? I don't fancy being stuck here til the Summer months!" cried Clyde. Callum went to reply, but found himself distracted by a sound from nearby. He hissed for them to be quiet for a second, and sure enough the heavy footfalls were drawing closer again.

"I thought we lost that thing!" whispered Clyde.

"So did I," murmured Callum in response. "We have to be quick and get out of this somehow! But try and be quiet and maybe it'll pass us!"

They began to struggle again, doing their best not to make too much noise, in the hopes that the creature – whatever it was – would simply miss them.

"Maybe the fog's thick enough that it won't come this far back," Rani suggested, quietly.

"Hopefully."

They continued to pull at their icy prison for another moment or so, before Callum found himself turning round in the direction of the footfalls.

"What the hell?" he yelped, as a massive creature's silhouette became visible in the fog. It was still at a distance that it couldn't be seen clearly, but from where it was now, he could see it was easily ten-foot tall, with long fearsome claws. It had a massive body and several sharp-looking horns on its head. As it drew closer, it began to growl. A low and terrifying sound that made the hairs on the back of Callum's neck stand on end.

"So much for keeping quiet, ay?" cried Rani, noticing the creature now and struggling even more to break free.

"Clyde! Rani!"

"Hendrick!"

The Doctor and Sarah Jane appeared around the corner, and Callum gave a big sigh of relief.

"A little help here?" he asked, inclining his head at their trapped hands.

"And quickly, please," added Clyde. "Look back there!"

Looking up, the Doctor and Sarah Jane took a quick moment to inspect the approaching creature. It was a good fifty feet away, and its steps were reasonably slow, but it wouldn't take long to get to them. The Doctor tried to see through the fog to get a good look at the creature for a moment before withdrawing the sonic screwdriver and pointing it at the hedge directly beside Callum's ensnared hand. Meanwhile, Sarah Jane had taken out her sonic lipstick and was in the process of doing the same for Rani.

With a final tug, the two of them broke free, and the frost crunched and fell to the ground. The Doctor rushed to Clyde and a moment later he too was free.

"Are you all okay?" Sarah Jane asked, as the Doctor took a tentative step towards the large creature, as it continued to approach them from out of the fog. The three of them nodded and gave the Time Lord and the journalist their thanks.

"Oi!" the Doctor yelled at the growling silhoutte of the creature. "Identify yourself!" At this, the creature stopped where it was and stood silently for several long seconds, before:

"You do not fear us." Its voice was the combination of the sound of ice breaking and a low hiss. Callum shivered at the sound.

"Depends really, I don't know you yet, do I?" the Doctor replied, pulling a defiant face. In response, the creature began stepping towards them again, talking as it did so.

"You are not of this world."

"And nor are you," the Doctor shouted, rolling his eyes. "Now stop stating the obvious and tell me who you are before I get impatient!"

"We are the Ice."

"The ice?" frowned Clyde. "Well don't be offended if I don't wanna put you in my drink." That comment earned him shooting glances from both Sarah Jane and Rani. Callum, despite the situation, stifled a laugh.

"We are the Ice," the creature said again in its horrific voice. "And it is up to us to extinguish the flames. Starting with you."

"Wait, what?" the Doctor said, suddenly looking a little thrown offguard, as the creature drew closer. The five of them backed up a little more, and the Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver forward in defence.

"All flames must be extinguished," the creature growled, suddenly lunging forwards with its fist raised. "All of them!"


	10. Fire and Ice (Part Three)

**A/N - Here's the second chapter so I'm up to date, hahaha! :')**

* * *

The creature swung its claw, smashing into the ground and tearing through the hedge behind the five of them. Seizing the moment, Clyde and Rani dived through, quickly followed by Sarah Jane, Callum and the Doctor.

The creature took another lumbering step forwards, trying to reach a claw through the hole in the hedge, but it couldn't reach far enough.

"Why isn't it just breaking through?" asked Callum. "It could easily step through from there!"

The Ice monster was now completely visible through the hole in the hedge and they all gazed upon the hideous sight before them. What Callum had thought were horns were really large spikes of ice, jutting out the crown of its head. Its eyes a flicker of pale blue, darting about hollowed out, dark pits. It had slits for nostrils and its mouth was full of rows upon rows of dangerous fangs.

Its body was the same sort of sharp, icy mass as the spikes on its head, making it look completely indestructible. Yet at the same time, the bulging muscle indentation was plain to see. What appeared to be sharp criss-crossing veins bulged on its arms, which ended in five sword-like claws.

It wore a large steel belt around its waist, holding up a tattered looking bright blue loincloth. Its legs were the same bulging monstrosities as its arms, with feet a good two times bigger than Callum's size 12's.

"The Ice," the Doctor murmured, having finally registered the name. "Of course! An Icerinok!"

"Ice-ri-knock?" sounded out Rani in confusion.

"Yes, yes," the Doctor nodded, enthusiastically, turning away from the struggling monster behind them. "Which is fortunate because that means we're reasonably safe."

"How do you mean?" asked Sarah Jane.

"Yeah, don't get me wrong, Doctor, but I'm not feeling too safe right now!" Clyde said.

"The frost," the Doctor said, gesturing around them, before giving Sarah Jane a look. "It's artificial, remember!"

"Yeah, we get that!" Callum cried, as the creature tried to lunge through the hole. "Care to explain though?" Suddenly, Sarah Jane's face lit up in realisation.

"It needs this frost to move, doesn't it?" she cried. "That's it, isn't it?" The Doctor gave a nod and smiled proudly.

"Can we have this conversation somewhere else now, then?" asked Clyde, spinning on the spot at the sound of footfalls from behind them. "I think we've got company!"

"Yes, perhaps that's the best plan of action!" the Doctor said, doing a little turn and gesturing for the others to run down a path to their right.

The Icerinok in the hedge roared in anger as it saw them escape, withdrawing its claws from the hole in the hedge, and stomping back towards the centre of the maze.

* * *

Up above the maze, the Icerinok's ship hovered, still shielded and completely invisble in the cloudbank. The Icerinok Lord sat patiently on his throne on the bridge of the ship, awaiting a response from one of the five soldiers he had sent down.

There were seven other Icerinok in the room, operating the machinery. One of them indicated that a communication was coming through, and the Lord gave a nod. The ice screen above them crackled into life, showing a visual of one of the soldiers.

"_My Lord, the enemy agents plan to escape. We must seal the area to trap the Hearthanians._"

The Ice Lord paused for several moments, raising a shortened claw and scratching a non-existent itch in his frozen white beard, before finally coming to a decision.

"Very well, soldier," he hissed, slowly. "Technician Fermak, boost the power by forty percent, then, Technician Zemptis, use the scanner to locate the power boost to all entrances and exits of the site below. Lock them in!"

"Yes, milord!" the two technicians cried, their clawless hands running over a series of keyboards and switches.

"Soldier, continue your pursuit! Find the Fire scum," the Ice Lord said. "Capture all of them! One of them must have _it_!"

"_Yes, milord,_" the soldier hissed, and with a salute of its clawed hand, the communication cut off.

The Ice Lord allowed himself a smile, the rows of sharp fangs in its mouth glinting in the light from the machinery around him.

* * *

Keith, Laura and Sky had found themselves hopelessly lost a good ten minutes away from where they'd started running from. Sky had been sure she'd remembered the way back to the entrance, but the fog made it impossible for her to keep track.

"Okay, what the hell was that thing?" panted Keith.

"Your guess is as good as mine," wheezed Laura.

"Keith! Laura!" cried Sky, pointing ahead of them. "Someone's hurt!"

"What d'you mean, Sk- oh, no!"

Just ahead of them, hardly visible through the fog, someone was lying on the ground. The three of them ran towards it, slowing down as they got closer to it.

"Seems to be human," Keith assessed. "Not big enough to be the thing that was chasing us, for sure."

"H-hello, are you okay?" asked Laura. It was a girl, with long, flowing red hair. She was wearing an orange dress and a pair of black boots, with a pair of reddish-brown leather fingerless gloves. Apart from her strange outfit, she seemed completely human, except for the strange crescent shaped red marking under each of her eyes.

At the sound of their voices, the girl's eyelids fluttered open, revealing bright yellow irises. She could easily pass as a human being simply wearing coloured contact lenses.

"P-p-please don't hurt me," the girl suddenly shrieked, curling up in a ball and holding her hands out protectively.

"Shhh, shhh, shhh, calm down," Laura said, soothingly as the girl continued to sob. "We're not gonna hurt you!"

"We saw you'd fell over and we wanted to make sure if you were alright," Sky explained. "My name's Sky, and this is Keith and Laura."

The girl finally lowered her arms and stifled another sob, looking up at them through glistening eyes.

"Y-you promise you won't hurt me?" the girl said, her eyes darting from face-to-face.

"Of course," nodded Laura, smiling kindly.

"I-I'm Princess Rupa'an V-Valdement," she said. She tried to push herself off the ground to stand and failed, whimpering as she fell to the ground again.

"What planet are you from?" asked Keith.

"Hearthana," the princess replied.

"So, how have you ended up on Earth?" Sky asked.

"Well, I- oh no, behind you!" she shrieked, pointing at the foggy path behind Laura, as the silhouette of the creature from before appeared again.

"Laura? Keith?" shouted a voice from nearby, and moments later, Callum appeared behind the hedge nearest them. "Oh, thank god you're okay! Wait a sec, who are y-"

"No time to explain, Cal," Keith said, helping the princess up. "We have company!" He pointed a thumb back at the creature approaching through the fog, and Callum nodded.

"Alright, come on, shift!" he said, preparing to run. "Follow me! The others are waiting just round the corner!"

They quickly followed him, Keith practically carrying the princess at this point, as she was still weak. Finding the Doctor, Sarah Jane, Clyde and Rani a moment later, Clyde was the first to notice the princess.

"Can we save the explanations for later, please?" panted Keith, before anyone else could say anything.

"Probably for the best," agreed Sarah Jane. "Let's get out of here!"

A good five minutes later, they finally found the entrance dead ahead, and Callum breathed a sigh of relief, but the Doctor suddenly skidded to a halt and took out the sonic screwdriver, pointing it upwards into the clouds again, gesturing for the others to keep running.

Callum stopped alongside him and waited for an explanation while the others made their way towards the entrance.

"What is it then?" he asked, finally.

"Atmospheric disturbances caused by the Icerinok ship generating the frost, but there's definitely something else. Something else is up there."

"You mean the alien girl's ship or whatever?"

"Hm, possibly," the Doctor nodded. "She looked like a Hearthanian."

"But then shouldn't they both be shooting at each other and stuff?" Callum frowned.

"Not a clue, but Sarah Jane's computer should be able to help," the Doctor said, pocketing the screwdriver. "Come on!"

The two of them ran again, quickly catching up with the others and running alongside Keith and Laura who were both holding onto the terrified looking girl. The entrance was so close now a-

The girl suddenly screamed again, as two lumbering Icerinok soldiers appeared from the two paths closest to the entrance. Sarah Jane, Clyde and Rani ducked under a swing from their claws and got through the entrance just in time, but suddenly a strange rippling blue light began to form around the entrance, leaving the Doctor and the others trapped with the two monsters.

"What is that thing?" asked Callum, nodding towards the blue light.

"They're trying to seal the entrance! We have to get through it before it solidifies!" the Doctor cried, taking out the sonic screwdriver again and waving it about at the Icerinok, seemingly hoping that something would actually happen.

"How are we gonna get the princess past those two?!" yelled Keith, diving back from another swing. The two soldiers converged on them, separating them, leaving Callum and the Doctor pinned to one side, while Keith, Laura and the princess were backed into another hedge. Sky was right in the middle, unsure of what to do.

"Don't touch the hedge with your bare skin!" yelled Callum to the others, as he and the Doctor ducked another swing, before the both dived in opposite directions as the Icerinok brought its other claw hammering down on the ground.

"Sky, run now!" Laura cried, waving a hand at the younger girl. Sky gulped and gave a shaky nod, before making a beeline right down the middle, just behind the two soldiers. They went to turn as she did, and she stumbled and for a second she could hear the collective gasps of everyone else as she fell...

But the next thing she knew, someone had grabbed her and had carried her through the barrier and they fell to the ground. Opening her eyes, she realised that Callum had managed to rocket up from the ground after he'd dived to the side of the Icerinok attack and caught her, propelling the two of them through the entrance.

Sarah Jane, Clyde and Rani crouched down to see if they were both alright, but Callum's attention was fully on his friends, still inside the maze. He went to run back in, but felt a hand grip his arm. Looking back he saw it was Sarah Jane who had him in her hold.

"We need to stay here," she said. "The Doctor can get the other three out, but if you go rushing back in it'll only distract him!" Callum grudgingly agreed and she let go of his arm.

Meanwhile inside the maze, the Doctor was still waving the sonic screwdriver around wildly. Keith and Laura had managed to help the princess move out of the way of another attack, but they were running out of room to move.

The Icerinok was advancing on them, in a slow, menacing way. It didn't need to swing about for them anymore – they were exactly where he needed them to be.

"Engage teleport," it growled, victoriously, and almost instantly, there was a flash of red lightning that struck down from the sky.

"_No!_" yelled Callum and Clyde, running back through the barrier, but it was too late as the Icerinok soldiers, Keith, Laura and the princess all disappeared in a flash. The Doctor shouted something in frustration and pointed the screwdriver upwards again.

"The barrier's nearly solidified!" cried Sky, and the Doctor, Clyde and Callum turned to look, immediately diving back through, moments before it completely solidified and became a massive slab of ice that covered the whole archway entrance.

"Doctor, are they gonna be okay?" asked Callum.

"I'm not sure, Callum," the Doctor admitted. "But they took them both when they only needed the princess, so they should be alright – at least for now. We have no time to lose now though! Sarah Jane, we need to get back to Bannerman Road!"

"Come on then!" she said. "The car's back at the manor!"

* * *

It was a tough fit for Callum, Clyde, Rani and Sky in the backseat of Sarah Jane's small car, and an uncomfortable twenty-five minute journey that Callum spent worrying about the fate of his friends, but he took a little comfort in the realisation that the Icerinok took them alive.

Finally, they arrived back in Ealing and Sarah Jane parked the car outside her large house. Callum took a short moment to marvel at the grand house before following the others into Number 13 and up the stairs to the attic.

"Mr Smith, I need you!" announced Sarah Jane as they entered the room, and even after all the surprising things Callum had seen before, he wasn't expecting to see the wall open up with a fanfare and several blasts of steam as the Xylok supercomputer revealed itself from its hiding place.

"Hello, Sarah Jane, I see we have some visitors," Mr Smith said. "Hello again, Doctor."

"No time for introductions, Mr Smith," Sarah Jane cried. "We have a problem."

"I assume you are referring to the events revolving around the atmopsheric disturbance earlier on today."

"That's right, Mr Smith," Rani said. "We're dealing with creatures called, um..."

"Icerinok," the Doctor said. "They've taken two of our friends and another girl. Possibly a Hearthanian! I think the Icerinok ship is definitely in the cloudbank, but there seems to be something else."

"You are correct, Doctor," Mr Smith replied, coolly. "Analysis of the sky above the MacTarn land indicates there are three vessels hiding in the cloudbank, each completely invisible to each other."

"Three?!" Callum, Clyde and Rani cried in unison.

"So wait, there's the Icerinok and this Hearthanian, yeah?" Clyde said. "So what's the third one?"

"Upon further analysis, the vessel seems to have one sole occupant, and it is giving off a strange energy reading."

"Can you do a further analysis, Mr Smith?" asked Sarah Jane.

"Further analysis could cause our location to be discovered, making us an easy target, should these vessels be hostile."

"Well, we know already that the Icerinok ship is hostile," Rani pointed out.

"Alright, wait," the Doctor said, "don't bother analysing the third vessel! Show me the Icerinok ship!"

"Displaying," Mr Smith said, simply, and his screen changed to show a visual of a large ship, hovering above the maze. It was about the size of a football pitch, and according to Mr Smith's onscreen analysis, it was just about three foot longer and two foot wider than one.

The Doctor observed the visual for several seconds, before a smile started to play across his face.

"Of course!" he cried, suddenly. "Alright, ah, this is good. Wait, no, it's not. Well, it is a little bit."

"What is it?" Sarah Jane asked.

"I've worked it all out! We need K9!" he cried.

"You heard him, Mr Smith," Sarah Jane said to the supercomputer. "You'll need to contact Luke!"

"Calling... Luke," Mr Smith replied, as the same words displayed onscreen. Moments later, a visual link appeared, showing Luke onscreen.

"_Mum!_" he said happily, before his eyes were drawn to the Doctor and Callum who were now standing at the front, beside Sarah Jane, while Clyde, Rani and Sky had crowded around the sides of them. "Oh, who are th-"

"Ah, hello, Luke!" the Doctor said, clapping his hands together. "Long time, no see! But there's no time to explain! Is K9 there?"

"_Affirmative, master!_" said the robot dog, as Luke tilted his camera slightly to get K9 into view.

"_Doctor, it's you?!_" Luke cried, incredulously. "_You've changed since I last saw you!_"

"Yes, it's me," the Doctor said. "But like I said before, no time to explain! K9, I need you to beam the TARDIS emergency protocols through to Mr Smith, and then, Mr Smith, I need you to boost the frequency I'm about to use on the sonic screwdriver. Got all that?"

"Awaiting protocols," Mr Smith said.

"_TARDIS emergency protocols sending, master,_" K9 said, as his little metal ears started to spin.

"Protocols receiving. You may now send the frequency, Doctor."

"Ah, very good, Mr Smith!" the Doctor said, pointing the sonic screwdriver at the screen, before he lowered it slightly and said to the others, "Oh, you might all want to stand back a bit and cover your ears!"

Following the Doctor's orders, they all took a few steps back. While Callum did expect the sound to be pretty loud, he didn't expect to almost be knocked over by the bellowing sonic buzz that erupted from Mr Smith's speakers. He noticed that onscreen, Luke had covered his ears too.

Finally, the Doctor lowered the screwdriver and pocketed it again and rubbed at his ear, looking a little irritated before checking the time on his wristwatch.

"Any second now," he said, cheerfully, turning to give the others two thumbs up.

"What d'you..." Clyde started, before being interrupted by the loud wheezing of the TARDIS engines as the blue box began to materialise beside the attic door. It wasn't materialising the way Callum had seen it done before though, as opposed to the rhythmic fading in and out from sight, this time it was shaking wildly and spinning on the spot like a little blue hurricane. With a final sound like a crack of lightning, the TARDIS stopped its spinning and the engines stopped their groaning.

"How did you manage that?" asked Callum, looking at the Doctor in astonishment.

"K9 had the TARDIS emergency protocols, including the one that allows contact with it when I'm far afield from it. Beaming them through to Mr Smith meant that I could access the right one with the sonic screwdriver, and send out the signal that brings the TARDIS to my location! Simple!"

"Yeah, I'll pretend I completely understood that," Clyde said, rolling his eyes.

"Ah, but anyway," the Doctor cried suddenly, "we can't afford to waste time! Everyone into the TARDIS!"


	11. Fire and Ice (Part Four)

**A/N - Well, here's the concluding part to _Fire and Ice_! Originally this was gonna be two separate chapters, but oh well, just means it's a little longer!  
**

**Review-y Bit!**

**Canned It 2011-2012: I'm not sure about adding a love interest in for Callum, just in case the TARDIS seems a little too crowded with two couples onboard, haha! I have a couple of characters coming up that I might be able to work a story into with, so I'll see what makes sense :')**

**Anyway, on with Chapter Four!**

* * *

"Alright, Callum, keep the co-ordinates stable to avoid us, y'know, going explodey-wodey!"

"Always the voice of confidence," he heard Callum sigh from the other side of the console as he tried to adjust one of the switches.

"Sarah Jane," the Doctor continued, ignoring Callum's comment, "you hold down on this here and alternate between back and forward every six seconds."

"Just like old times," Sarah Jane smiled. The Doctor gave a little grin, reaching over the console and yanking down on the helmic regulator.

The engines screamed as they took off into flight, and they all found themselves holding on for dear life again as the room buckled violently.

"This isn't going to plan, is it?!" Callum yelled.

"Clyde, Rani!" the Doctor shouted. "Blue levers!"

"Let's get this straight," Clyde cried, "is this a suicide mission?"

"Oh, nothing so dramatic!" the Doctor replied as something else exploded somewhere deeper in the TARDIS.

"What the hell was that?!" Callum shouted.

"Probably just a door or something," the Doctor dismissed. "Sky, can you hold on to that button just there, thank you!"

"But the other rooms aren't usually affected when we're in flight, surely!" Callum cried.

"Ah, you make a fair point," the Doctor said, his brow furrowing as he adjusted something underneath the console.

"D'you hear... water?" Rani asked. The six of them all turned to look at each other for a moment, yelling out as a blast of water erupted through the wall, rushing down onto them as they grasped onto the console as best they could.

"What the heck's going on in here?" Rani shouted.

"Is everyone alright?" Sarah Jane cried, as water continued to pour on them.

"Oh, aye," bubbled Callum, spitting out a mouthful of water. "Completely fine!" He turned to look at the Doctor, still battling against the sudden tidal wave. "Swimming pool?"

"Yes," the Doctor nodded, mopping the wet hair out of his face. "And the three extra water storage tanks. That's going to be difficult to repair!"

"Aye, well, is there any way of drying it up in here first?" Callum asked. The water had stopped blasting now, and the entire bottom floor of the console room was flooded, with the water just under their feet now. Fortunately, the engines had stopped groaning now and the Doctor took a step back from the console and indicated for the others to do the same.

"Drainage systems!" he yelled, looking up at the time rotor, which had stopped moving.

"Hm, no such luck," Callum said. "Oh, well." With that, he jumped down into the water and managed to half-swim, half-walk to the doors and wrench them open, the water rushing out and onto the metal floor of the room they had arrived in.

A terrified looking red-skinned man was cowering in the corner of the room, clutching a steel box to his chest. Callum looked at him in confusion.

"P-p-p-please don't kill me! I didn't mean to take it, I swear!" he screamed.

"What the hell are you talking about?" asked Callum, shivering as the water ran down his spine. He was completely drenched and he probably looked like a drowned rat.

"Ah, it's all starting to make sense now," the Doctor said, appearing in the doorway behind Callum. "Hearthanian, yes?"

"Y-yes? A-aren't you working with the Icerinok?"

"No, of course not," the Doctor sighed, walking round Callum and into the small room. He walked over to the control terminal and loaded up the screen. Clyde, Rani, Sky and Sarah Jane appeared behind Callum, peering out into the strange room.

"Where are we?" asked Sky, water dripping from her hair. "I don't really understand."

"The third vessel hiding in between the Hearthanian rescue ship and the Icerinok ship," replied Sarah Jane, squeezing her hand, comfortingly.

"See, I get that part," Clyde said, "but why?"

"Doctor?" Sarah Jane said, looking just a little confused too. The Time Lord in question was in the middle of doing something at the terminal, while the Hearthanian man still hid in the corner, holding the metal box as if it was the most important thing in the Universe.

"Ah, well, y'see, that's the interesting part," the Doctor said, gleefully, waggling a finger in the air, his back still to them. "The girl that the Icerinok took with Keith and Laura, the one they were after, is a princess."

"Still a bit lost over here," Rani admitted, wiping some of the dripping water from her face.

"Hearthanian royalty is a bit of a funny thing," the Doctor continued, tapping a button, stepping back from the screen and turning to face them, gesturing for them to look.

On the screen, a video of the princess had began playing and her voice began to echo around the room.

"Number 2493- oh, that n-number is far too long – um, Barakem, please return to the main ship immediately," - she didn't sound too sure of herself and Callum found himself getting even more confused – "Your actions will h-have consequences, as this act of tr-treason is a massive offence, b-but you will be given a f-f-fair trial."

The Doctor paused the video, and looked at the cowering man, expectantly. The red markings on the man's face seemed to shimmer for a moment as he looked at them all, his ocean blue eyes full of shame.

"He's a thief?" Sarah Jane realised. "But what did you steal?"

"And what's it got to do with the Icerinok?" Callum asked.

"Th-they made me!" wailed the man – Barakem. "You don't understand!" The Doctor's eyes suddenly narrowed and his expression turned cold.

"What did you steal?" he asked, a hint of steel in his tone.

"The Soul Stone," whispered Barakem, choking back a sob. The Doctor's eyes suddenly widened in surprise.

"You... you stole the heart of your own planet?!" he said, incredulously. Barakem nodded slightly, looking down at the metal box.

"What'd'you mean the heart of his planet?" asked Clyde.

"Hearthana is a planet whose inhabitants rely on temperatures a lot higher than Earth," the Doctor explained. "We're talking close to boiling point here. But the thing is, it requires the Soul Stone to be kept in place at the core of the planet to keep the temperature level."

"Pretty common on colony worlds, yes?" Sarah Jane recalled, having heard some information regarding something along those lines from Mr Smith at one point.

"Exactly, Sarah," the Doctor said, leaning against the terminal and pointing a finger at Sarah Jane as he nodded before turning to face Barakem again."You're going to kill an entire planet out of greed."

"N-no, it's not like that!"

"What is it then?" bellowed the Doctor, catching them all offguard. Callum flinched at the sudden ferocity of the Time Lord's tone. The expression on the Doctor's face was of pure hatred and rage. "What is it that's so important you would kill your own people for?!"

"My wife," sobbed Barakem, breaking down again. "The Icerinok took her months ago! C-c-contacted me and gave me their demands."

"Why didn't you ask someone for help?" Sky asked, kneeling down next to the sobbing man, her eyes full of concern.

"Not that simple, is it?" he replied, quietly. "I was on my way to the Icerinok rendezvous point when I realised at the last minute that there was a chance my wife wasn't even alive anymore, and I decided I would turn back round and put the Stone back, but the princess had already set out on her pursuit ship. However, at that point there was a hyperstorm that struck all three ships, and pulled us down here to your planet! I've been trying to fix the engines but nothing's working at all!"

"Yeah, what's that about the princess?" Rani asked. "You said something about that a minute ago, Doctor."

"Ah, yes," the Doctor nodded, having calmed down incredibly fast after finally hearing the truth from Barakem. "The royals of the planet have a position as part of the main military force. As you can probably imagine, they end up going through quite a lot."

"Makes sense," Callum said. "So what do the Icerinok want this Soul Stone for?"

"Ooh, good question," the Doctor replied. "Well done."

"I-I'm not sure," Barakem said, shaking his head. "They wouldn't tell me."

"_That is because you would not have assisted us then, fool!_" hissed a voice over the intercom, immediately recognisable as an Icerinok. "_Beam them aboard!_"

"No!" they all cried out in unison as they were enveloped in flickering red lightning.

* * *

Moments later, Callum found himself being thrown to the ground as a large Icerinok soldier smashed him in the stomach with his fist. Thankfully, this one didn't have claws, or Callum would've been an awful lot worse. Although he began to ponder on that alternative when the Icerinok lifted a massive foot and pushed it down on his back, pinning him to the cold floor.

"Ah, so you're all here!" growled the Ice Lord, stepping up from his icy throne. Callum looked round to see the others in similar situations to him. Sarah Jane, Rani and Sky were still standing, restrained by two soldiers, while the Doctor and Clyde struggled to break free from under the massive feet trapping them to the floor.

Barakem was the only unrestrained one, yet he sat at the foot of the small flight of stairs leading to the Ice Lord's throne. He was shaking all over and he clutched his box – no doubt containing the Stone – to his chest closer than ever.

"Ah, Barakem, my dear fire scum."

"M-m-milord," stammered the Hearthanian man, trying to scramble back away from the Ice Lord.

"I think you have something that belongs to me, don't you, Barakem?" the Ice Lord said, a victorious sneer on his face.

"What do you need the Stone for?" asked Barakem, unable to look up.

"It's the perfect weapon, of course," the Ice Lord replied. "The Soul Stone isn't any old colony planet temperature stabiliser, you know. It is the original, capable of being altered and converted into a weapon capable of destroying any planet I see fit!"

Barakem looked up at him for a moment in complete shock before he was suddenly grabbed by the neck by another of the giant soldiers, causing him to drop the box as he grabbed at his throat and choked out.

"Put him down!" screamed Sky, trying to break free from her captor's grip.

"Stop!" protested the Doctor. "You don't need to kill him!"

"Neither do I need to let him live," replied the Ice Lord, his sneer turning into a wicked smile. He waved his hand slightly and with a single swift motion, the soldier choking Barakem inclined its hand, breaking the Hearthanian's neck before letting go of him.

Sky screamed and the others – minus the Doctor – collectively gasped as the man's corpse fell to the floor, while the Ice Lord simply looked at it with disdain and prodded him with his foot.

"Hmph, what an idiot."

"You're going to regret that," the Doctor said, flatly.

"Is that a threat?" hissed the Ice Lord, taking a step towards the trapped Time Lord. "Let me show you what happens to those who are foolish enough to threaten me."

He motioned with his hand again, and the soldier pinning Callum to the floor lifted its foot off of his back and picked Callum up by the neck. Callum kicked out, thrashing violently as he began to choke, deaf to the shouting and protesting from the others.

_Oh god, I'm gonna die, _was the only thought racing through his mind. _What about Keith and Laura?_

"Lift him," the Ice Lord ordered the Doctor's captor. "I don't want him to look away and miss out."

The Doctor lashed out as the soldier lifted its foot and grabbed him, his arms moving wildly. The Ice Lord laughed, relishing the look of terror on Callum's face, and the look of rage on the Doctor's.

The soldier gripped the Doctor's head, making sure he was looking right at Callum.

"Shall we have a countdown?" the Ice Lord said wickedly. "Yes, yes, that sounds fun!" He took a moment to observe the range of expressions on his prisoners faces, from Sarah Jane and Rani's looks of fear, to the crying Sky, to the hatred-filled faces of Clyde and the Doctor. Suddenly, the Ice Lord's face changed as he realised something. "Aaaah," he cooed, "we're still missing three members of this little party, aren't we?! _Bring out the other prisoners!_"

A portion of the icy floor slid open and what seemed to be a cage about the size of a single bed made entirely of the same ice slid upwards, containing Keith, Laura and the princess.

"_Callum!_" Keith and Laura yelled in unison, rushing to the bars of the cage and trying desperately to break out.

"Now that we're all here, let's get on with the show!" the Ice Lord screeched, pointing at the soldier currently still holding tightly to a red-faced Callum who was struggling for air. "On my mark! Three... two... one..."

* * *

Callum assumed the last word he would ever hear before he died would be something along the lines of, "Now!" in the grating voice of the Ice Lord, but apparently the Universe had other plans, as something suddenly exploded through the window of the ship, crashing into the Ice Lord's throne before erupting into flames, sending a shockwave throughout the room, sending everyone in the room dropping to the floor, and allowing their captives to break free.

Callum collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. He could feel marks where the creature's hands had been pressing in but he was just glad to be alive.

"_What is this?_" screamed the Ice Lord, scrambling across the floor to reach the metal box he had dropped in the explosion. He was beaten to it at the last moment by the Doctor who had managed to get back on his feet instantly. The Ice Lord looked up with his eyes full of hate as the Doctor looked down on him and smirked.

"I told you you'd regret killing Barakem," he said, matter-of-factly.

"What did you do?" croaked the Ice Lord, as the Doctor took a step back and opened the metal box.

"Look and see," the Doctor replied, simply, inclining his head in the direction of whatever had crashed through the window and burst into flames. The Ice Lord's gaze followed the Doctor's and he made a guttural choke.

"H-how? I don't understand?!"

"Oh, it's easy really," the Doctor replied. "Oh, and before any of your boys think of standing up again, I'd like to remind you all that I'm the man with the weapon now!" He opened the metal box and pulled out a pale pink orb, holding the sonic screwdriver against it.

Sarah Jane had rushed to comfort Sky, who had stopped crying for the moment, but as she saw the Doctor take control she stood up and crossed the room to join him.

"You did what I think you did, didn't you?" she asked, looking at him in admiration.

"What did I do then, Sarah? Tell 'em all!" the Doctor said, triumphantly.

"Reversed the polarity of the neutron flow," Sarah Jane replied, and Callum found himself saying it under his breath in unison with her. Suddenly it all made sense!

"Wait, nope, sorry," Clyde said, helping Rani back on her feet. "Think you're forgetting we're not all like Luke! We don't get all the sciencey jargon!"

"He reprogrammed every system on Barakem's vessel before we were teleported off it," Sarah Jane replied, clapping her hands together in appreciation.

"And that made it crash... how exactly?" piped up Keith, still inside the cage.

"Well, I linked the controls to respond to a signal from my sonic screwdriver, which I managed to reach when Frosty made his goon lift me up! Big mistake on your part, ay?" the Doctor explained, his last words directed at the Ice Lord who hadn't moved from the floor, having slumped over defeatedly. "Now then, here's how this is gonna work: I'm going to disable every weapon this ship has, I'm going program it to take you back to Iknotia Sitem, we're going to leave and you... _you _are _never_ going to enter this part of the Universe again."

"And if we refuse?" the Ice Lord whispered, refusing to look up from the floor now.

"I think you know what'll happen if you refuse," the Doctor said quietly, a dangerous smile playing on his lips.

"Very... very well..."

"Excellent!" the Doctor cried. "Goodbye then!" He pointed the sonic screwdriver at one of the computer banks that lined the room, and in a flash of red lightning the Time Lord, his friends, and the Hearthanian princess disappeared...

* * *

...reappearing moments later inside the TARDIS.

"Wait a sec," Callum cried, "I thought the TARDIS was onboard Barakem's ship when we were teleported away?"

"Well it was, but when I was being clever, I programmed the ship's airlock to open when it started to crash, and the TARDIS slid out and fell to the ground!" the Doctor explained as he slipped his way up the stairs to the console, and with a flourish, the room came to life again, having seemingly got over its earlier technical difficulties. "Oh, aren't you a clever old girl?" he cooed. "All better again, ay?"

Callum went to say something else, but was interrupted by a sudden rib-breaking hug from Laura.

"Oh, we were so worried!" she cried. "Callum, you're soaking – what the hell happened?!"

"The swimming pool exploded a bit when we were in flight," Callum told her. "Wait, why were you both worrying about _me_?! You were the ones who were captured!"

"Aye, but as soon as that icy bastard knew we didn't know anything about that Stone thingy, he figured keeping us as hostages was a better option, or a Plan B at least," Keith explained. "That cage was a little cramped though, I'm glad to be out of it!"

"Aaand, that's them rid of!" the Doctor cried, flicking down on one last lever. "If we go outside we _should_ be able to see 'em go!"

The nine of them bolted out of the still sodden TARDIS and found themselves back in the maze, where the artificial frost was starting to melt away.

"Hey, look up!" Clyde said, pointing into the sky. The thick cloudbank from before was starting to clear and two ships started to become visible.

"Y-you mean to say my ship had e-e-ended up right alongside the Icerinok ship the entire time?" the princess said, incredulously.

"Looks that way, aye," Keith nodded.

The next thing they knew, the larger of the two ships suddenly wobbled slightly and red lightning ran over the entire length of the ship, and moments later it blasted off at an incredible speed, clearing away the last of the strange cloudbank.

Suddenly from within the TARDIS, the phone began to ring, and the Doctor dived in before running back out a moment later.

"Princess, it's for you," he said. "I think your ride home is here!"

* * *

It had only taken the TARDIS a moment to land onboard the Hearthanian ship, and the Doctor, Keith and Laura stepped out to bid the princess goodbye, while Callum and the Bannerman Road gang stood in the TARDIS doorway, watching as the Doctor handed the Stone to the princess and gave her a tiny bow, and Keith and Laura both said their goodbyes.

Sarah Jane and the others were having their own conversation, but Callum was too preoccupied reflecting on how he and his friends' lives had changed since they met the Doctor. The places they'd seen and the people they'd met – it was all just incredible to think about.

"Lovely girl," Keith said as they stepped back into the police box. "Terrible at I Spy though." Callum snorted with laughter as they followed the Doctor back up to the console.

"Well there is only so much you can 'spy' when you're trapped in an icy cage in a cramped dungeon," Laura pointed out.

"_We _were doing perfectly good," Keith retorted with a little pout.

"Right then," the Doctor interrupted, "one last stop and then we'll be off again!" He hopped around the console and adjusted something. "13... Bannerman... Road!"

* * *

Only moments later they were back in Sarah Jane's attic, saying their goodbyes to the four of them as they made their way out of the TARDIS. Callum, Keith and Laura decided to follow Clyde, Rani and Sky out, leaving the Doctor and Sarah Jane to say their goodbyes in private.

"From my detecting the Icerinok and Hearthanian ships leaving Earth's orbit and returning towards their homeworld, I can only assume everything has went to plan?" Mr Smith asked.

"Not everything," sighed Sky, softly. Rani gave the other teens a sad little smile and sat down on the wooden step next to her, putting an arm around her shoulder and giving her a hug.

For a few minutes, Clyde took it upon himself to show Callum, Keith and Laura the alien gizmos and artifacts that were kept in the attic, including a Sontaran gun, the Bubbleshock cans Sarah Jane had kept for analysis, and the ticket for Spellman's Magical Museum of the Circus, which received a shudder from Callum, who was rather obvious in expressing his dislike of clowns.

"Where are you lot off too next then?" asked Clyde, nodding his head in the direction of the TARDIS. Callum leaned against the door and smiled a little.

"Absolutely anywhere!" he replied, simply. Sky went to say something, but she was cut off by the other TARDIS door opening as Sarah Jane emerged and stepped down to stand alongside her young friends, while the Doctor stuck his head out the doorway.

"Alright then, you three," he announced, "we best be off! Don't want to be sticking around all day causing bother, ay?"

"Come back soon, alright, you lot?" Sarah Jane smiled at the four of them.

"Of course," Laura smiled.

"Great to have met you three," Rani smiled. "And it was nice seeing you again, Doctor!"

"Yeah, but maybe next time we can just do something relaxing, like bungee-jumping off of Big Ben," joked Clyde. "Or, oh, I dunno, breaking into the Tower of London."

"Sounds like a plan," laughed Keith, as he stepped into the TARDIS. "Til the next one!"

"Til the next one," echoed Clyde. Callum and Laura followed Keith back into the TARDIS, waving their goodbyes and the Doctor stuck around to say his goodbye before he shut the door and bounded up to the console.

"Right, then, you three," he said, "who's up for chips?"

"Sounds like a plan," Callum nodded. "I might need a towel and a change of clothes first though! I'll just be a sec!"

"Alright, you two," the Doctor said, addressing Keith and Laura as Callum ascended the stairs and ran off in the direction of his room, "pick a city, any city!"

* * *

Sarah Jane smiled as she watched the TARDIS dematerialise, wondering where exactly it would end up next. She noticed her three young friends also seemed quite happy too. Sky had brightened up considerably from before, but there was still a sad little look in her eyes.

"Oh, would you look at the time!" Sarah Jane said. "It's almost time for dinner! Shall I phone a pizza in? I think I'll take a night off cooking."

"Sounds like a plan, Sarah Jane," Clyde said. "I'll go find a menu!"

"And I'll go set plates out at the table," Sky said, brightening up at the thought of pizza and enthusiastically following Clyde out of the attic, leaving Sarah Jane and Rani in the attic.

"What d'you reckon then?" Rani asked. "When d'you think the Doctor'll come back next?"

"Oh, Rani," Sarah Jane laughed, putting an arm round Rani's shoulders and guiding her over to look out the window, and up into the orange and yellow evening sky. "You never know what'll happen next. If there's two things you can count on to always surprise you, it's the Universe, and the Doctor!"

* * *

**A/N - Next week: _Meanwhile in the TARDIS 6_ - which also serves as the opening for Episode Seven!**


	12. Meanwhile in the TARDIS 6

**A/N - Hey, so here's the next Meanwhile on the TARDIS, although it's technically the Prelude to ****_The Castle in the Storm_****, which I will begin posting starting next week! Please remember to read and review!**

**Review-y Reply Bit Thingy**

**Canned it 2011-2012: Parts Three and Four are going to be the same as Part Two, set in between ****_The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe_**** and ****_Asylum of the Daleks_**** from a timey-wimey perspective, so there is a possibility of Amy and Rory showing up again, though I haven't quite decided yet! If I make a sequel (Series 2), I might set it during Series 7: Part 2, so that Clara will be with the Doctor, although it'll probably take place after ****_The Crimson Horror _****in terms of the Paternoster Gang's timelines.**

**The10thDoctorRocks - Thank you for another positive review! I'm glad you enjoyed it :')**

* * *

"_Asteroiiiiiiiid field_!" the Doctor roared, throwing his tweed jacket onto one of the pilot seats as the TARDIS wobbled rapidly. He skidded across the glass floor, yanking on levers and adjusting other controls, manically, as Callum, Keith and Laura arrived in the console room, having been rudely woken by the smack of the asteroids off the TARDIS exterior.

"What I don't get," Keith groaned, as they were chucked into the wall by the force of the TARDIS' jerking movements, "is how we could hear those asteroids smacking off outside when we're deeper in the actual TARDIS."

"It's dimensional transcendension," the Doctor called up in reply, as he span around again, grabbing hold of the blue stabilisers. "Anyway, why aren't you three dressed?"

"It's the middle of the night!" Laura cried, standing with her large black dressing gown wrapped tightly around her. Keith stood next to her in his boxers and a baggy T-shirt he wore to bed, while Callum had made even less effort and was standing in just his underwear.

"Not anymore, it's not," the Doctor smiled, smacking down on a button and with a slow hiss, the room stopped shaking, and the smack of asteroids outside subsided.

"Oh, hark at you," Callum laughed. "Master driving skills right there, ay?"

"Of course," the Doctor said, straightening his bow-tie proudly. "Anyway, go put some clothes on! You can't go walking about like that!"

"I was in a rush to come see what was happening, okay?" Callum cried, indignantly. "Alright, I'll be just a sec." With that he turned and ran back out the console room towards the bedrooms.

"Yeah, us too," Laura said, disappearing after him. Keith yawned and rubbed his eyes, and with a grunt that could have been, "Me too," he followed after her.

It was only a few moments later that the three teens returned to the console room, fully dressed. Callum, now wearing a red hoodie over a black-and-white checkered shirt, rolled up his sleeves and stepped around the Doctor to inspect the scanner.

"So where are we going, anyway?" he asked.

"Not a clue," the Doctor replied. "I've set the controls to random."

"Isn't that what got us stuck in Arctic City yesterday?" Keith frowned.

"Okay," the Doctor said, flicking a lever, clearly disabling the random setting. "Where shall we go?"

"How about somewhere relaxing?" Laura asked.

"Beach?" suggested Keith.

"Yes, but _what_ beach?" the Doctor sighed. "There's billions of beaches out there! At least be a bit specific!"

"Well, besides a few on Earth I don't actually know any!" Keith cried. "I dunno – Florida?"

"Oh, no, no, no, too busy," the Doctor replied, shaking his head. "I know! What about-"

"No museums!" Callum yelled, cutting him off. The Doctor's shoulders slumped.

"Not even for an hour or two?"

"Nope," Callum said. "Last time we let you take us to a museum, we ended up there an entire day."

"Oh, come on, that was fun!" the Doctor laughed. The blank expressions on the three teens' faces told him they thought otherwise. "Okay then, if you three are so good, you choose somewhere!"

The three of them huddled together, out of the Doctor's earshot and whispered suggestions to each other, secretively. The Doctor tried to listen in, but he couldn't make out anything they were saying. Until...

"Alright, we've decided," Callum said, happily.

"Astound me with your selection," the Doctor replied, a glint in his eye.

Keith went to open his mouth, when suddenly an alarm began to ring and the lights began to flash wildly.

"What's going on?" Laura asked, as the room tilted on its side and they were flung to the side, clutching onto the railings for dear life.

"That asteroid field wasn't an asteroid field!" the Doctor cried, yanking the scanner round to inspect the screen.

"What is it then?" Callum shouted over the wailing siren, his knuckles going white from gripping to the side of the console.

"It's a rift storm!" the Doctor yelled. "Pure time/space energy rippling through a fault-line in time... and space!"

"That doesn't sound too good," Laura shouted. "We're safe in here though, right?"

"Hm, not really," the Doctor said, too quietly to be heard, before raising his voice to shout, "We will be, but we'll need to put something on the exterior of the TARDIS to boost the shields."

"Can't we do that from in here?" Keith asked, as the room began to quake violently again. The shaking was stronger than it was before, and several of the flickering lights began to burst.

"Nope, the interior shields should hold out, but it's the exterior we need to be careful with. If the exterior bursts, the interior will be ripped apart! That sort of rift storm could easily tear open the exterior shell!"

"Okay, that doesn't sound too good!" Callum cried. "What do we do?"

"Just need to attach a power booster to the shell," the Doctor said. "Exterior though, which could be dangerous. I should really do it, but I don't think you'd be able to keep the TARDIS in position in the condition we're in right now, Callum."

"Nah, it's fine, I'll do it," Callum said. "Where's the power booster?"

"Should be in one of the boxes down there," the Doctor said, gesturing to the stairs leading downwards. "I'll try and keep the TARDIS away from the heart of the storm, but you'll have to be quick!"

Callum nodded and jumped down the stairs two at a time. Keith and Laura followed after him.

"Alright, what exactly are we looking for?" Keith asked, as they began to search through the pile of boxes the Doctor stored down here, full of miscellaneous items.

"Power booster," Callum said. "Circular plate thingy. Made of metal. Like a little clamp!"

"How do you even know that?" Laura asked.

"I have experience, remember?" Callum smiled.

"Oh, got it!" Keith cried, pulling out the item Callum had just described from the recesses of the box he had been searching through.

"Brilliant!" Callum beamed, taking it from him. "I better go put it on now!" They returned to the main console. "Okay, Doctor, what am I doing with this?"

"Just stick it to the side of the TARDIS and push down. It'll clamp itself on and it'll raise the forcefield around the TARDIS."

"Okie doke, got it," Callum nodded, jumping down the other set of stairs towards the front doors. He unlocked the right hand door and yanked it open, immediately being hit by a blast of air from outside that then seemed to start pulling the air out the way.

"I thought you didn't get draughts of wind in space?" Laura yelled to the Doctor, over the screeching sirens and the now howling wind.

"It's time and space energy," the Doctor yelled back in respsonse. "It's all wibbly!"

"Sometimes I feel like that's the only answer he's got," Keith cried, grabbing hold of the railing to keep himself from being pulled forwards.

Callum was struggling to place the booster on the door, as the pull of the air was incredibly strong. He tried to adjust his footing so that he could hook his left foot behind the left hand door, so he could get round to the side to place the booster on the side of the TARDIS. He looked up briefly and gasped at the sight before him.

The rift storm was gigantic, stretching on as far as his eyes could see. It was like miles upon miles of blue and white clouds, with streaks of lightning far out in the distance. It all seemed to be converging on one central point, where what appeared to be a streak of black energy was crackling wildly at the centre.

Suddenly, the TARDIS jerked wildly, and a blast of the rift energy smashed off the side, causing Callum to lose his grip on the booster. It began to drift away, and he reached out to catch it, when another blast of energy smacked the big blue box. Callum yelled out in surprise as his hand lost grip of the door and he felt himself falling outwards.

"_Doctor!_"

"_Callum!_" he heard his three friends yell out in unison. He was falling now, but at the same time he was being carried by the strong pull of the winds, straight into the heart of the storm. Somehow, probably coming through the rift, oxygen was still filling his lungs and he said a quick thanks to whatever alien gods were smiling down on him in this sector of the Universe...

Then he remembered he was probably about to be frazzled to death at the centre of the storm.

"Oh," he said, simply, as he was dragged straight into the storm's heart.

* * *

"We've got to go after him," Laura yelled.

"Yes, I know," the Doctor replied. "It's alright – now that we're closer to the rift I can see where it currently leads to." He gazed at the scanner. "Luckily, especially for him, it seems capable of supporting human life."

"So are we gonna go through after him then?" Keith asked. The Doctor shook his head.

"Nope, it'll be leading somewhere else now," he replied. "You see, the time/space energy coming from it tends to fluctuate, and it can lead to anywhere else in the Universe, so it tends to change a lot."

"So, how can you be certain?"

"I locked on to him, now could one of you go shut the door so I can get us into the time vortex?"

"Yeah, okay, I'll get it!" Keith said.

"Three, two, one - _geronimo_!" the Doctor cried, yanking down on a lever and leaping backwards as the console erupted in a flurry of sparks.

"We're coming, Callum!" yelled Laura, holding on to the pilot seat in an attempt to resist the momentum of the rapidly speeding TARDIS as it rocketed through the time vortex.


	13. The Castle in the Storm (Part One)

**A/N - Here's Part One of Episode Seven! Uh, nothing much to say, really, unless you're just reading for the first time in which case you should probably read the previous chapter: '****_Meanwhile in the TARDIS 6'_****, as that's really the Prequel to this episode! Please read and review, as it really means a lot, yup!**

* * *

Callum jumped up and yelped as his head smacked off of something heavy. Rubbing his sore head he looked up to see he was somehow lying in a thankfully unlit fireplace. He rapped his knuckles off of the solid concrete and growled at it, before clambering out and onto a thick blue carpet.

"Wh-where am I?" he murmured, standing up and dusting the ashes from the unlit fireplace off of him. "That storm..."

As if hearing his words, from outside he suddenly heard a crack of thunder. He was in the corner of a huge candlelit library, completely silent except for the storm raging outside. He looked up to see that the library was at least eight floors high. After noting that, he crossed over to a glass window and pushed back the curtain, his eyes widening as he saw what was outside.

The storm raging outside was like nothing he'd ever seen before. The sky was completely black and jets of strange red and white lightning were smashing down wildly, while sheets of rain lashed down on the windows of... wherever it was that Callum had arrived through that weird storm. He reached up and opened the window, sticking his head out slightly and looking down.

"Woaaah," he exclaimed, taking in what was below. Or in this case, _not_ below. Wherever it was he'd arrived it seemed to be a castle or a large house – at least he was guessing from the large stone walls and the small windows at regular intervals along each floor below him. Looking up, he could just see an outcropping tower, and a yellow light shining out through its window. However, looking back down, he still saw no evidence of anything actually holding the castle up at its foundations. Just endless shifting black clouds – as if this castle was the only thing in the centre of a hurricane.

"This isn't good," he murmured.

"Excuse me, sir?" piped up a quiet voice from behind him, making him spin round in shock to see a young girl with raven black hair, no older than ten years old. She was wearing a white nightgown and carrying a strange lantern that seemed to be casting a violent pink glow from it.

"Oh... h-hello," Callum stammered. "Where am I?"

"What do you mean?" the girl said, looking up at him with watery blue eyes. "Don't you live here?"

"Well, uh, no," Callum replied. "I just woke up here..."

"Oh, that's a shame," the girl said, suddenly sounding rather sad.

"How d'you mean?" Callum frowned, sitting down on the desk that had been placed in front of the window he had opened, his feet dangling an inch from the floor.

"Because I need help finding my way back to my room, you see," the girl said. "The first ghost I met told me if I don't get back to my room before midnight, I'll disappear like he did!"

"A ghost?!" Callum exclaimed. "Wait, what do you mean 'first ghost'? How many ghosts have you seen then?"

"Oh, only two," the girl said, matter-of-factly. "In fact, you're only the second ghost I've seen."

"What?" Callum said, feeling more and more confused every second. "What are you talking about? I'm not a ghost?"

"Of course you are, silly," the girl suddenly giggled, pointing at him. "You're turning invisible!"

"Wh-_wah!_" Callum yelped as he looked down to see that up to his knees had completely disappeared. He tried to reach down, hoping that the girl was right and he was just turning invisible but no such luck – his legs and feet had completely gone. "What's going on?!"

"I don't know, Mister Ghost Boy," the girl admitted, shaking her head and looking genuinely puzzled. "Haven't you went invisible before then?"

"Not that I can remember!" Callum said, before making a strange squealing noise as everything below his waist faded away. "_Where's the bottom half of my body went?_"

"I'm sure you'll find out when the rest of you follows it," the girl said, nodding as if that was the best possible answer. "I think I better go find my room again – it's getting late. Goodbye, Mister Ghost Boy!"

"Wait, wait, _waaai_-" Callum went to yell out. However, when your body – including your mouth – completely disappears, you don't tend to get to finish your sentences.

* * *

The next thing he saw was the TARDIS console room and the Doctor, Keith and Laura rushing around the console. Laura was the first to notice his sudden reappearance.

"Callum!" she cried out, running down the stairs to hug him. "We thought we'd lost y- huh?"

She trailed off as she ran straight through Callum and found herself facing the wall.

"Um, what just happened?" Callum frowned. "I'm a little confused..."

"Oh, dear, that's not good," the Doctor said, running down the stairs and standing directly in front of Callum. Keith slowly followed behind him and looked at Callum in confusion.

"The sooner someone wants to explain, the better," Callum said. "I'm beginning to freak out a wee bit here!"

"Ahh, well," the Doctor paused, pushing his hair back and buzzing Callum with his sonic screwdriver. Looking down, Callum suddenly yelled out as he saw that instead of being solid he could see through himself. The Doctor looked at the screwdriver and frowned. "Good news and bad news. Good news? You're perfectly fine!"

"I think I can guess the bad news," Keith said.

"I'm a bloody hologram, aren't I?" Callum cried.

"Um, well, yes," the Doctor said, chewing his lip for a moment.

"But... how?" Laura asked, sticking a hand through the space Callum's stomach should be.

"Oi, do you mind?!" he cried, indignantly, stepping away.

"Oh, sorry," she laughed. "But, yeah, how has he ended up like that?"

"Not completely sure," the Doctor frowned. "Falling through the storm could have splintered him through time. Did you end up anywhere else before you appeared in here?"

"I was in this weird library... in a castle I think," Callum nodded. "There was a girl there and she thought I was a ghost because I started to fade away, and I ended up here."

"Hm, that's interesting. Anything else happen? Who was the girl?"

"Not a clue. She said something about getting back to her room before midnight or she'd disappear like another ghost she'd saw before?"

"Oh, that's it then!" Keith said, snapping his fingers. "All you have to do is go find this ghost guy!"

"Something tells me its not that simple," Callum sighed. "She said that he'd disappe-"

There was a sudden fizzling noise and the TARDIS and its occupants disappeared and Callum found himself lying on the floor in that strange library again.

* * *

"Well that's going to get annoying," he groaned as he rolled over and sat on the floor with his legs crossed, resting his chin on his hand as he thought about what to do.

_My phone_, he thought suddenly, mentally facepalming for not thinking of it in the first place. Taking his phone out of his pocket he dialed the TARDIS number and waited as it started to ring. Moments later there was a click as someone lifted the receiver.

"_Callum, is that you?!_" the Doctor yelled down the line, accompanied by a wince-inducing screech of feedback. Callum held the phone away from his ear for a moment before putting it back.

"Yeah, it's me! I'm back in this weird library place," he said. "Any chance you could come find me?"

"_Cal, your hologram's been frozen here for three days! We've been trying to get hold of you all that time!_" he heard Keith yell.

"Wait, what? I only left the TARDIS like a second ago!" Callum cried, jumping up from the floor.

"_We've been searching that time storm for three whole days now,_" the Doctor said. "_Whatever's happening has distorted your timelines. You're being projected as a hologram onboard the TARDIS while the real you, well, your physical self, is trapped wherever it is you are!_"

"And what does that mean in Earth terms?" Callum frowned.

"_Uhh, well, I'm not completely sure,_" the Doctor replied, evasively.

"Doctor..."

"_Oh, alright, it could be potentially disastrous and wipe your existence entirely if we don't get you back here!_"

"Ah, okay, forget I asked," Callum sighed. "Just another average day. Anything you can do?"

"_Working on it now,_" came the reply followed by a grunt. "_I'm locking onto your phone signal but something... wherever you are, keeps knocking us off track. Is it safe to walk about?_"

"Not sure," Callum said. "I've not left the ground floor of this library room."

"_I think you might have to try and look around then,_" the Doctor said.

"But wait, what exactly am I looking for?" Callum asked.

"_Not the foggiest,_" the Doctor replied, admittedly. "_Probably a big weird looking machine of some description though._"

"Oh, well, thanks for not being vague," Callum joked. "Still, could be worse."

As if on cue, there was suddenly a dull boom from the double doors at the other end of the room, accompanied by kicking and muffled shouts.

"_It just got worse, didn't it?_" Callum heard Laura say.

"Yup," he replied, backing away slightly. "Doctor, any ideas here?"

"_I'm sorry, Callum, but there's literally nothing we can do to help right now! You're gonna have to run!_"

"Alright then, here goes!" Callum replied, immediately heading for the flight of wooden stairs that lead up to the first level. "Lucky I've got that earpiece of yours, I suppose – saves me running about with a phone held up to my ear."

"_Yes, but whatever you do, don't hang up! This is the first link we've managed to get to you in three days, remember!_"

"Got it," Callum nodded, running up another flight of stairs to the second level. "Trust me, I don't fancy sticking around until I disappear again!" From below him now, he could hear the doors burst inwards and the sounds of several people charging in and shouting.

"It was here you saw the boy, yes, lass?" barked a gruff voice.

"Yes, sir," replied the familiar voice of the girl Callum had met before.

"Come out, boy!" bellowed the gruff voice again. "We want some answers!"

From his viewpoint, pressed against a bookcase on the second level, he could make out at least six men, all dressed in strange looking old-fashioned farmer's clothing, and carrying what appeared to be rifles.

"Doctor," he hissed, hooking in his earpiece. "I've got a problem."

"_Yes, we can hear,_" the Doctor replied. "_This isn't good at all._"

"Yeah, you're telling me! Oh, no, they're coming up the stairs now!"

"_Hide!_" Laura cried.

"_No, you need to run, Cal!_" Keith said. "_They don't sound like they mean well._"

"Thinking that myself, actually," whispered Callum as he edged around the bookcase. There was an archway that lead up a flight of stone stairs about twenty feet away from where he was standing now and he wondered if he could get there without being noticed by the men who were climbing up the stairs.

Taking a quick breath, he lightly half-jogged his way behind another bookcase, just in time to hide himself from the view of two of the men who had emerged at the top of the stairs on the second level. The archway was only three steps to his left now, as he'd pushed his back up against the shelf.

"Come out, boy!" one of the men called, echoing the demand of the gruff-voiced man from before.

Callum peeked around the side of the bookcase to see that the two men on this floor both had their backs to him, investigating several aisles of bookshelves on the other side of the floor. Callum began to slowly edge his way backwards into the archway, doing his best not to draw their attention. Suddenly, a gloved hand covered his mouth and he was pulled back through the archway and behind a stone pillar. He tried to lash out for a moment before his captor suddenly shoved him against the wall, keeping their hand over his mouth and indicating for him to be quiet.

Their face was shrouded in darkness, as they had their hood up and there wasn't much light in this small antechamber, but Callum could make out two ice-blue eyes staring out at him.

"Shut up, kid," the hooded person grunted quietly with an American accent, and Callum identified the voice as belonging to a teenage boy, probably not much older than he was. "We can't get out of here with you drawing attention to us, can we?"

Callum shakily nodded, a little confused as to what was going on. The boy took his hand away from Callum's mouth and took a step back before crossing over to a fancy green tapestry with a white bear embroidered on it in decoration. He then lifted it up, revealing a crawlspace in the wall, and gestured for Callum to go through it.

"_Callum? Callum?! Are you alright?_" cried the Doctor, worriedly.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Callum hissed, looking at the hooded boy in confusion.

"Get your ass in there or I'll leave you here for them to find you!" the boy growled. Callum took a moment to consider, before deciding it was probably best to get as far away from their rifle-wielding pursuers as possible, even if it meant climbing through a hole in the wall with a complete stranger.

He looked at the hooded boy as he quietly walked over to the crawlspace, trying to determine any more details as to who he was, but all he could see was that he was wearing a long dark purple cloak with brown leather gloves and black boots.

"Will you quit staring at me and get in there, dammit!" the boy hissed, motivating Callum to push himself into the crawlspace. Luckily, Callum was pretty slim so it wasn't too much trouble to navigate his way down the cold stone passage.

Glancing behind him, he noticed his hooded – wait, was he a rescuer or a captor? - whoever he was, he was backing his way into the crawlspace, having pulled the tapestry back over.

Through his earpiece he heard the familiar bleep of the TARDIS scanner and the collective gasp of his three friends.

"It just got even worse, didn't it?" Callum sighed.

"_Ah, well, um, yes, you could say that,_" came the Doctor's reply.

"Let's get it over with then. What is it?"

"_Remember what I was saying about your existence being completely wiped?_"

"Yes?" Callum murmured, shuffling his way out of the end of the crawlspace, and pushing the tapestry at this end of the passage out of the way. "Please tell me I'm not just gonna disappear in a minute."

"_Not a minute, no..._" the Doctor replied. "_An hour_,_ yes..._"


	14. The Castle in the Storm (Part Two)

**A/N - Hey, I meant to post this a little earlier on today, but I got sidetracked, hahaha, aw well, I hope you enjoy, anyways! Would you appreciate some teasers for the rest of the series?**

* * *

"What's up with you?" the boy said, appearing out of the crawlspace behind Callum.

"What time is it?" Callum asked, whirling round to face him, catching him offguard as he toppled out of the gap and crashed down on top of him, sending them both falling to the floor.

"D'you mind?!" the boy growled, standing up and dusting his cloak off. His hood had fell back, revealing him to be a pale-faced boy with a scar running down over his left eye. His hair was a mess of raven black, and his ice-blue eyes were unnaturally bright without his hood. "Why do you need the time?"

"I have an hour left to exist, basically," Callum replied, quickly. "Time now, please?"

"Jeez, fine, fine, quit whining," the boy sighed, unbuttoning his cloak and reaching into the pocket of the dark red shirt he was wearing underneath before pulling out a fancy looking pocketwatch. "One minute past eleven."

"At night?"

"What do you think, genius?" the boy sighed, rolling his eyes as he pocketed the watch again. "Haven't you noticed outside?"

"We're in the middle of a storm," Callum pointed out. "What's to say it isn't daytime?"

"You've got an hour to live and you're squabbling over what time of day it is?" the boy replied, raising an eyebrow.

"You're a bit of an asshole," Callum sighed.

"_Pfft._"

"Anyway, what's going on here? Wherever 'here' is."

"Not completely sure, if I'm honest," the boy replied. "I just appeared here a few hours ago, next thing I know I'm getting chased by those weird guys. Just so happens _you_ had to come along and appear just as I was trying to get out of here. Count yourself lucky I helped you out."

"Hm, yeah, for someone who was helping out, you're still an ass."

"Hey, y'know what, I didn't have to show you a way out back there," the boy said, glaring at him.

"Yeah, well, thanks, I guess..." Callum replied, awkwardly.

"Hn. What's your label?"

"My label?"

"Yeah, y'know? Like, your name?" the boy sighed.

"Oh, I'm Callum."

"I'm Alex, nice to meet ya. Now shut up and come on," the raven-haired boy said, turning and walking off down the corridor they had crawled into.

"Where are you going?" Callum asked.

"Did you miss the part where I said to shut up?"

"Must have, aye."

"Ugh, fine then," Alex groaned, stopping abruptly and spinning round to face Callum. "I'm gonna show you where we are, and then maybe you or whoever's talking through your ear can work something out, because I'm sure as hell not capable of hiding from psychos with guns _and_ working out an escape plan."

"_Tell him he sounds like an asshole again, Callum,_" Keith said through his earpiece, and Callum bit down on his bottom lip to stop himself from laughing in Alex's face. Instead, he nodded and waited for the boy to start walking away again before allowing himself a grin.

"Don't do that to me again," he warned Keith with a chuckle as he followed after Alex.

"_Sorry, mate,_" Keith laughed. "_Oh, yeah, it's just me here for now. The Doctor's been working on some gizmo to scan your hologram, and Laura's somewhere in the TARDIS library to try and find a book on rift storms or something like that._"

"Oh, well, at least you haven't all forgot me," Callum said, now walking alongside Alex as they turned the corner.

"_Bit hard to when it looks like your ghost is hovering by the front door, y'know._"

"Hm, yeah, that's real nice, Keith," Callum laughed.

"D'you mind shutting up before someone hears you," Alex hissed.

"Right, hey, Keith, I'm switching the earpiece onto silent for now, buzz through if you need me, 'kay?"

"_Got it, man! Keep safe, 'kay?_"

"Cheers, I'll do my best," Callum smiled as he reached behind his ear and adjusted the little control on the back of the earpiece.

"Who was that then?" Alex asked quietly, as they found themselves ascending another flight of stairs. "Friend?"

"Yeah," Callum nodded. "I've been travelling with three of my friends for a while now, but I fell out our... uh, ship... into a rift storm or something like that."

"Hm, can't say I know anything about rift storms," Alex replied, looking at Callum out of the corners of his ice-blue eyes. "I was in the Citadel, down in the Undercity, minding my own business, next thing I know I'm in this stupid place. Got a pretty good view when I arrived though. Now shut up and follow me."

* * *

Meanwhile in the TARDIS, Keith had got bored – and a little freaked out – of waiting about in the console room with Callum's hologram. It had frozen with its eyes wide open and its mouth shut, reminding Keith too much of a dead body, except its slight transparency and habit of flickering every so often reminded him more of a ghost.

Having abandoned the console room, he was making his way along the corridors trying to find his way to the TARDIS library. He had no idea where the Doctor had went off to for working on his machine thingy, but he knew Laura would no doubt still be in there, trying to find something to help.

After a good three or four minutes of walking through a small art gallery, a weird cathedral-like room, and what appeared to be a garden, he finally found the double doors leading into the library.

It was peacefully silent in here, and Keith could immediately smell the familiar smokey incense that Laura always lit when she was studying or reading. She was sitting in the far corner, her reading glasses on and her hair tied back. Keith secretly thought that this was when she looked her most perfect, when she was completely distant from the troubles of the real world, caught up in a book. Her eyes always had that little glint in them, and she mouthed the words as she read them, stopping every now and again to push the glasses up the bridge of her nose again.

She hadn't noticed him enter, having been too focused on the massive leatherbound tome she had placed on the table in front of her, but she looked up as he appeared next to her, planting a kiss on her temple.

"Found anything yet?" he asked quietly, not wanting to disturb the peaceful aura in the room.

"I think I might have," she nodded. "I found a book on the third floor," - she pointed upwards – "and it's all about rift storms."

"Mm, I love it when you talk all smart," Keith smiled. Laura raised an eyebrow before continuing with what she was saying.

"Anyway, according to this book, rift storms are well known for leading to the sites of spatial disturbances along disturbed timelines."

"I'll pretend I understood that," Keith nodded. "Go on."

"Well, the book has a list of known rift storm locations, y'see," Laura continued, turning a few pages of the book and pointing at a list of places and the co-ordinates next to them. "The only problem is, we have no way of knowing whether Callum's landed through any of these, or whether it's a completely different location altogether."

"How many is there on that list?" Keith asked, scanning the list.

"Well, 34 possible locations," Laura replied. "I'm not sure how we could identify whether it's any of them though."

"Hm, let's go find the Doctor then," Keith said, stroking his chin as he thought. "Maybe his machine thingy'll be able to sort things out!"

Laura gave a small nod and picked up the large book, stuck her reading glasses into her pocket and licked a finger and a thumb before leaning over to snuff out the burning red incense stick on the table in front of her, before following after Keith, who was patiently waiting for her in the doorway.

* * *

"You weren't joking when you said you got a good view of the place," gasped Callum as he and Alex emerged in a roofless tower almost exactly in the centre of wherever they were. The rain had stopped, but the storm was still raging above them.

"Well, get looking and try and find us an escape then," Alex said, exasperatedly, sitting down on the rain-soaked ground. Somehow, the howling wind they could hear all around them wasn't actually affecting the little tower and Callum leaned over to peek over the wall.

"Woah, it's massive!" he cried. The tower they were on gave an incredible 360 view of the massive structure. It was easily twenty floors high, with sprawling buildings of different heights. Some parts were connected by stone bridges that ran over the constant black clouds that surrounded everything. Yellow light shone through hundreds of rows of windows, and towers and turrets outcropped everywhere, with the two boys standing on one of the taller ones that surrounded a massive central tower. "I just don't understand..."

"You're wondering where exactly we are?"

"Well, yeah..."

"Probably nowhere," Alex replied, unhelpfully. "If you tried to walk out the front door you wouldn't end up anywhere. You'd fall out and disappear down there."

"How d'you know that though?" Callum frowned, taking one last look over the massive structure before sitting down on the ground mirroring Alex. He propped his elbows on his legs, his hands under his chin and looked at the elder boy, who had closed his eyes and appeared to be deep in thought.

"I saw those guys from the library earlier," Alex explained. "Was spying on them a bit, and when they were in the entrance hall one of them walked straight out the front door and just kept falling. Then one of them saw me, started shouting and pointing a gun at me. Luckily, I'm quick on my feet."

"So how d'you know he just kept falling?" Callum asked.

"Think about it, geez," Alex sighed. "He was obviously screaming."

"Oh..."

"Hm, your ear thingy's flashing," Alex said, pointing a gloved finger at Callum's left ear. Callum furrowed his brow as he reached up and adjusted the setting – surely he should have heard a noise if the others were trying to communicate with him.

"_Ik vaal'ak namun purdis kalim vandin holbentaj,_" burbled a strange distorted voice through the earpiece. Callum's frown deepened as he tried to adjust the setting again but nothing seemed to stop the strange voice in its alien language.

"What is it?" Alex asked, noticing Callum's expression.

"It's not my friends," Callum replied. "Some weird alien language, but it's not translating because I'm not in contact with the TARDIS."

"The what?"

"Oh, the ship I was travelling on," Callum explained, still fiddling with the earpiece. "Long story. Ugh, I just wish I knew what this was saying."

"Here, let me listen," Alex sighed, shifting himself over and pressing his ear against Callum's to listen.

"This is kind of weird," Callum murmured.

"Shut up, I'm trying to hear."

* * *

Keith and Laura found the Doctor in his study, the clock-filled room where he kept items that reminded him of some of his adventures. He had left his jacket in the console room, and rolled his sleeves up to do whatever it was he was doing. He had completely swiped everything off of his fancy wooden desk, and was in the middle of smacking two large metal devices together.

"What's that you're smashing?" Keith asked as they approached him. He looked up for a second, suddenly aware of their presence before taking a step back from the desk and sighing.

"It's supposed to be an inversion scanner. To scan the empty space that the hologram exists in. Just doesn't seem to want to stay held together though. I even tried using gum."

"What sort of gum? Like tree gum?" Laura frowned.

"No, no, don't be ridiculous," the Doctor said, shaking his head. "It was minty."

"Should've known," smirked Keith.

"Anyway, what are you two doing here? Has something happened?" the Doctor asked, sitting down in the leather chair behind his desk and buttoning up his shirt sleeves.

"I found something in a book in the library," Laura replied, taking the large book from under her arm and walking round the desk. She placed it down and began to search for the page she had been looking through. "Ah, there it is."

The Doctor read the page over in a split second. "Right, so that definitely narrows it down then, doesn't it?" he said.

"You think? How are we gonna get to all 34 places and search for Callum in... 45 minutes?" Keith asked, looking down and checking the time on his phone

"Well, one of them is being protected by something that prevents us from following after him," the Doctor explained. "So we're going to have to go through the list and whichever one we can't get through to..."

"Is the one we're looking for," finished Laura, enthusiastically.

"Alright then, let's get a move on!" Keith beamed.

"Oh, well, d'you mind carrying that bit then?" the Doctor asked, pointing at one of the large metal devices on the desk.

"Surely we don't need it now though?"

"Well, yes and no – I've got a plan!" the Doctor smiled. Keith and Laura quickly exchanged _oh no, not again _looks, that was seemingly unnoticed by the happy Time Lord.

* * *

"C'mon, you've been listening to it for a good two minutes," Callum groaned.

"Yeah, well, it's difficult to work out where a sentence starts or stops. It's just the same phrase over and over again though," Alex replied, his ear still pressed against Callum's. He had pulled a small, round device with a screen and a keypad out of one of the pockets on the inside of his cloak and he was tapping away at it. Another minute later he finally pulled his head away and stood up, pointing at the device. "There. Got it."

"What did you do?" Callum asked, standing up. "You've translated it?"

"Of course, dummy," Alex said. "What did you think I was doing?"

"Aw, shut up and tell me what it says!" Callum sighed, facepalming in disbelief at the boy's continuing attitude.

"It's a distress call, by the looks of it," Alex replied, running his finger along the screen. A small electronic trill rang. "Oh, the translation's completely finished now. Yeah, definitely a distress call. It was broadcasting on all frequencies, which would explain why your earpiece got it."

Callum stuck his tongue out the corner of his mouth and bit it slightly, suddenly deep in thought.

"Can you trace that back?" he asked.

"I could try, but it'll take me a couple minutes," Alex nodded.

"Alright, then," Callum said, "but can we go back inside where there's actually some heat? It's baltic out here!"

"Hm, alright," Alex said, rolling his eyes. "We're gonna have to keep an eye out for those gun guys."

"That was on the priority list," Callum replied, opening the wooden door they had came through and descending the staircase. Alex followed close behind and they found themselves somewhere different from the way they had came before.

"Wait, that doesn't make sense," Alex noted. "We were in a completely different place before we went up those stairs!"

"Hey, yeah, you're right," Callum gasped. "Uh, any ideas?"

"Apart from the geography of the castle changing, you mean?"

"Well, yeah..."

"No such luck," Alex said, shaking his head. "Which poses a bit of a problem because now we have no idea what part of the castle we're in!"

"Or where we could end up," Callum added. "But how come the layout never changed before?"

"Must just go off at random moments," Alex said, his icy blue eyes not looking up from the screen of the little device in his palm. "We _are _in the middle of some time storm."

"Fair point," Callum replied, crossing over to the nearest window and peering out. The rain had started again, and the wind was still howling – enough to cause the glass panes to shudder slightly from the force.

Callum pressed his forehead against the cold window, closed his eyes and gave a big sigh. He had about forty-three minutes left to figure out what exactly was going on and get back onboard the TARDIS.

His trail was suddenly interrupted by Alex yelling his name and the sound of a gun clicking nearby. He swivelled around just in time to see two young women – a redhead and a blonde – both dressed in cocktail dresses, high heels and fur coats that gave Callum the impression they were from sometime in the 20th century. They were both pointing small pistols at the two boys, and they looked incredibly angry.

"Alright, you two," the redhead growled with a London accent, "give us one good reason why we shouldn't decorate the walls with the inside of your heads."

Callum exchanged a look of shock with Alex for a second before his attention was drew back to the two women.

"Oh, sometime today, pet," the blonde cried. Callum noticed she had an Irish accent. "My trigger finger's getting a bit _itchy_!"


	15. The Castle in the Storm (Part Three)

**A/N - I meant to post this earlier but I've been pretty busy all day, so here it is, finally! Nothing particularly new to update on, except that I might be doing a second series to this. Not sure yet! Til then, please read and review, yep!**

* * *

"Don't shoot!" Callum cried, sticking up his hands in defence. "We're stuck here too!"

"What d'you mean?" the blonde sneered. "You must have some idea of what's going on. Explain!"

"I'm not sure how to describe it in terms you'd understand," Callum said, slowly.

"Just tell us," snapped the redhead, taking a step closer to him. Callum didn't like the fact her gun hand wasn't even shaking a little.

"There's a time storm raging up there," Alex growled, pointing out the window. "Something's destabilised it and its snatching people through time and bringing them here. We're in some sort of castle where the geography keeps changing, and so far in the past hour you're the second bunch of people to point guns at me."

"Is he... telling the truth?" the blonde asked in a hushed tone, slightly taken aback. Callum nodded, trying not to act as scared now.

Suddenly, there was an explosion from somewhere above them, and the entire corridor shook. A table toppled and an expensive looking vase fell and shattered. Paintings tipped off the walls and several of the window panes shattered. A large chandelier just behind Alex snapped from the ceiling and clattered to the ground, exploding and showering them in sparks and glass, and leaving the corridor in darkness.

Callum and Alex took this opportunity to jump over the fallen chandelier and take a sharp turn left down the next corridor. The two women yelled out and a shot fired at them, narrowly avoiding Alex and embedding in the wall behind him. Callum noticed the stairwell through a doorway to their right and yanked Alex's arm, dragging him through the doorway behind him.

"I'm not gonna lie, this is all getting a little too much for one day," Alex cried.

"Welcome to my life!" Callum laughed, running up the stairs. "C'mon, that explosion was from somewhere upstairs!"

"So we just ran away from a dangerous situation, just to get into another one?"

"I know," Callum beamed. "Great, isn't it?!"

"Callum, kid, you're crazy."

* * *

They burst through the doorway to the next floor – the door marked 16, leading them to reason that this was the 16th floor – and found themselves in one massive cathedral like room. It didn't fit in with the interior of the rest of the rooms and corridors they had been in so far, but Callum put it down to the interior being constantly changed by the time storm.

"Hey, up there!" Alex cried, pointing up to a large balcony that ran along the wall about fifty feet above them. A large metal structure had smashed straight through the balcony and embedded in the wall, sending surges of electricity pulsing out and along the metal railings. Thick, black smoke was spewing from the hole and Callum could make out small flames flickering around the body of the metal thing.

"Is that a ship?" he asked, squinting to see if he could make out any details.

"Sort of," nodded Alex. "It's an escape pod."

"How can you tell?"

"I've got good eyes," Alex replied. "Oh, and this told me." He shook the little metal device in his hand. "Reckon it's what sent out that signal?"

Callum thought for a second before shaking his head.

"I don't think so," he said, "but that makes me think there must be a bigger ship somewhere around!"

"Huh? What d'you mean?"

"If there's an escape pod, then it's gonna have to have jettisoned off of a bigger ship, aye?"

"Hm, that's actually some pretty smart thinking on your part, kid."

"No need to act so surprised," pouted Callum. "But anyway, I think we should go up and have a look at that pod. Someone could be hurt – c'mon!"

* * *

The Doctor, Keith and Laura had arrived back to the console room and immediately noticed the change in Callum's hologram. It's flickering was becoming more constant, having been frozen there for the past three days.

"That isn't good at all," frowned the Doctor. "Keith, come help me with these devices. Laura, can you get in contact with Callum?"

"On it," nodded Laura, leaning over the console to the communication switches. The Doctor nodded his thanks before he and Keith made their way down to the hologram by the door.

"Alright, I'm going to place this half of the device in front of the hologram, and you're placing yours down at the back," the Doctor explained. "Got to make sure the wires stay together though – if one comes loose we'll be back to square one."

"Aren't we already on square one?" joked Keith as they got down to setting up the two devices. The Doctor gave a half-smile as he dug into his trouser pockets for the sonic screwdriver before slapping the palm of his hand off of his forehead.

"Left it in the study," he sighed. "Can you run back and get it while I set this up?"

"Yeah, sure," Keith nodded. "Just be a sec."

He took a second to ruffle Laura's hair affectionately as he bolted past her and up the stairs. She was trying to get back in touch with Callum.

"Doctor, the scanner says there's something blocking our communication thingy with Callum," she frowned. "I dunno what buttons to press to try and get round it."

"Aagh," exclaimed the Doctor. "I can't do both things at once, sorry, Laura, you're gonna have to bear with me til Keith gets back!"

"Oh, okay," Laura nodded. "I'll just keep trying it this way for now."

* * *

A few moments later, Keith returned, quickly glancing at the time on his phone again as he handed the sonic screwdriver to the Doctor.

"38 minutes," he said, worriedly. "Are we gonna make it?"

"Of course we are," the Doctor said. "And this should help us! We'll have to leave it for a few minutes to work though!"

"Time we don't have," Keith pointed out.

"Always waste time when you don't have any," the Doctor said, prodding two fingers against Keith's forehead before leaping away up to the console. Keith stood for a minute, blinking in confusion before he followed after the Time Lord.

"Right then," the Doctor said, clapping his hands together, "let's find Callum!"

* * *

Callum and Alex had managed to find a set of stairs leading up to the balcony fairly quickly and for a second they booth stood staring at the hissing metal pod.

"Do we open it?" Callum asked. Alex looked unsure.

"Not sure, kid," Alex replied. "I'll see if I can scan it with this."

He held out the device and a thin blue light shot out from it, running over the length of the pod.

"Anything in it then?" Callum asked.

"Nope," Alex replied. "But you were right about there being a bigger ship! This is picking up the trajectory and flight pattern of the pod."

"And is it the same place as the signal?"

"I'm not completely sure but I think there's a good chance," nodded Alex. "This machine's a little faulty sometimes, but from what I can understand, there's a ship crashed in the underlevel of the castle."

"Could you maybe get any information on that ship? Like species, number of crew?"

"I'm not a miracle worker, kid," Alex said, shaking his head. "We're just gonna have to go in blind."

"Oh, well, it's not like I've never done that before," sighed Callum. "Let's g-"

"_Callum!_" the Doctor's voice yelled through his earpiece.

"Doctor, you're back! The earpiece stopped working!" Callum cried, adjusting the settings on the earpiece again to keep in contact. "Oh, and you're lucky I have unlimited minutes on my phone bill or I'd be making you pay it!"

"_Yes, well, we can't say the same for you right now, so we need to hurry up!_" the Doctor cried. "_We're trying to scan the hologram but it just keeps getting weaker, and we're trying to break through in 34 separate dimensions._"

"Sounds a bit complicated," Callum frowned. "We've found a crashed pod and there's a bigger ship crashed in the lower levels of this weird castle place, and I get the feeling that maybe that's what's blocking you from landing, so we're gonna go investigate it!"

"_Alright then, but be careful, alright?_" the Doctor replied.

"Got it," Callum said. "Don't worry, I'll see you all soon!"

"_Hope so! I best get back to steering, so get in contact when and if you need us!"_

"Okie doke," Callum smiled, reaching up and switching his earpiece to standby.

"What's up then?" asked Alex.

"My friends are trying to get through," Callum explained, "but I don't think they can until we fix whatever's gone wrong here."

"Better go find that ship then, yeah?"

* * *

_31 minutes_

Callum and Alex found themselves quietly tiptoeing into the lower levels. The distant sounds of a crackling fire drew their attention to a doorway with a portcullis blocking it, and smoke was drifting through the holes in the large metal gate. It was damp and dark down here, with stone walls and no natural light. Fortunately, there was an old lantern that Alex managed to light with a tinderbox he had found upstairs.

"How do we lift the gate thingy then?" Callum asked, nodding at the portcullis.

"I'm not sure," Alex admitted, scratching his head. "Looks too heavy to lift." Callum went to reply but he was interrupted by a cough from behind him.

Swivelling round, they both immediately caught sight of a hooded man, standing in the doorway they had just come through.

"How are you enjoying the test, Callum?" the man hissed in a strangely distorted voice. Almost robotic. His long black robes and hood completely obscured any sight of his face.

"What do you mean by 'test'?" Callum asked, confused by the unexpected appearance of this stranger.

"Who are you?" Alex asked. "D'you know him, Callum?"

"Not quite yet," the man said, quietly. His voice seemed to suggest he was an older man, perhaps just past middle-aged. "But he will soon enough."

"What's that mean?" Callum asked, angrily. "Don't talk in riddles. I'm in a hurry!"

"Then don't be so quick to raise your voice, child," the man said, his voice suddenly taking on a steely edge. "Especially when I'm simply here to offer a hand."

"Oh, really?" Alex said, doubtfully.

"Absolutely," nodded the man, snapping his gloved fingers. The two boys turned at the grating sound of the portcullis lifting itself up. "No need to thank me."

With that, the man snapped his fingers again and stepped backwards into what appeared to be a strange ripple of black energy, directly behind him. Before they could do anything, the ripple sealed up and the two boys sighed, their shoulders slumping in disappointment and annoyance.

"That could've been our way out of here," groaned Alex.

"I dunno, something was definitely off about that guy," Callum murmured. "I wonder whether he's got anything to do with this time storm."

"_Callum?_" crackled his earpiece. Laura's voice sounded quite faint and scratchy now. "_Callum, can you hear me?_"

"Hey, Laura, I'm here!" he cried. "How are you guys doing?"

"_Not too sure,_" she admitted. "_Are you doing alright for now?_"

"I think so," Callum replied, motioning for Alex to follow him under the portcullis. "Alex and I are looking to see if we can find the crashed ship. Oh, yeah, we met some weird guy too, and he knew my name, so I figure he might be something to do with this whole thing!"

"_What d'you mean?_"

"He just sort of appeared out of nowhere," Callum explained, as they turned the corner at the end of the passage. "And th- woah!"

He heard a burble of static in his ear, and Alex swearing beside him.

"_What? What is it? Cal? Cal, are you okay?_"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine," said Callum, a little distractedly. And with good reason too, as instead of a corridor ahead of them, there was nothing, which provided them with a view straight out towards what appeared to be a large, spinning, black whirlwind, accompanied by a new heavy rainfall that was already lashing down on the two boys, standing on the edge of the corridor. "Think I might be in close proximity to a black hole though."

"_No, no, no, no,_" the Doctor's voice shouted through the earpiece, making him wince. "_Think, Callum, you're not gonna get a black hole in a pocket Universe in a storm! That'd be silly!_"

Callum breathed a sigh of relief, "Oh, thank god for that."

"_Death Vortexes on the other hand..._"

"Oh, let me guess," Callum groaned, "_that's_ a Death Vortex."

"_Quite possibly._"

"Alright, then, what does a Death Vortex do?"

"_Sort of what it says on the tin, really,_" the Doctor replied. "_It's like a contained burst of time energy, much like that potential energy they siphoned from you on the Anthopilian spaceship._" Callum remembered that day well."_Except, this time energy is raw and uncontained. You get close enough to that and it'll eat away at your existence._"

"Well, I'll add the Death Vortex to the list of problems I'm currently facing. Above or below twenty-seven minutes left to live, d'you think?"

"_No need to get cranky, Hendrick! Everything's going to be fine!_"

"Yeah, well, I can only hope," Callum said, smiling a little and pacing a little. The Doctor's optimism had given him some hope, at least.

"_Well, when I say 'fine',_" the Doctor's voice continued through the earpiece, "_that's purely subjective and dependent on how this whole situation plays ou-_"

"_Doctor, shush, you'll worry him,_" Callum heard Laura whisper, and he stifled a laugh.

"Uh, I've found the ship," Alex said, gesturing for Callum to look out the large gap where the corridor should continue. Peeking around the crumbling wall, Callum couldn't see anything except more of the castle's outside walls and the lashing rain. Alex sighed and rolled his eyes, "Look down, dummy."

Without retort, Callum looked down and exclaimed in amazement at the large ship that had crashed about twenty feet down. Its front half was embedded in the castle wall several floors below them, and small red lights over the body of the off-white painted metal were flashing wildly. A thin jet of smoke was coming out from the large thrusters at either side.

"We're gonna have to jump, aren't we?" groaned Callum.

"I don't see any other way down," Alex replied.

"_Wait, you're gonna jump?!_" cried Laura, incredulously, accompanied by a screech of feedback.

"Ow, don't shout!" groaned Callum, rubbing his ear in pain. "But, I think that looks like the only option for now. It's only about twenty feet down, so as long as I don't slide, I should be okay."

"I better go first," Alex murmured, standing on the edge of the corridor, the wind blowing his black cloak wildly.

"You sure?" Callum asked, worriedly. Alex turned his head to look at Callum over his shoulder with his piercing eyes, his lips curling into a smirk.

"I'm no chicken, kid." And with that, he disappeared over the edge. Callum skidded forwards to look down, just to see the blonde-haired boy land on the ship. Squinting through the rain that was splashing in his face, he could make out Alex looking up. He should have expected the accompanying yell of, "Sometime today then, dammit!"

"Aw, shut up!" shouted Callum, poised on the edge. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before murmuring into the earpiece, "Wish me luck."

And then he jumped.


	16. The Castle in the Storm (Part Four)

**A/N - Sorry for the late update! Turns out this is gonna be a five-chapter episode after all, haha! Chapter Five will be up in the next few days, and then ****_Meanwhile in the TARDIS 7 _****will be up on Thursday, as scheduled!**

* * *

In the cockpit of the ship, a small alarm began to ring out. Deep within the internal matrixes and protocols of the ship's main systems, something began to stir.

"**Intruders on the ship. Activate security grid,**" the computer said in a calm female voice. This was followed by a series of whirs and bleeps from the slightly smoking computer banks, and then the room took a more ominous turn, with the female voice distorting and the flickering lights taking on a red tone. "**Activate internal clean-up. Incineration sequence commencing.**"

* * *

"This is definitely _not_ my day," groaned Callum, rolling over on the wet metal surface of the ship. He'd managed to sort of slip upon landing, and crashed down so that he was lying on his stomach. The rain didn't seem to want to give up, and the wind was making an extra special attempt to try and blow them off their current slippery spot.

Alex extended a hand and pulled him up, to which Callum mumbled a quick thanks. Alex made a small grunt of acknowledgement and then proceeded to walk down the ship's exterior towards a circular hatch. Callum zipped up his hoodie before cautiously making his way over.

"Seems like there's no lock," Alex said, doing a quick scan with his device. "Can't guarantee it'll be safe in there."

"Yeah, but it'll definitely be drier," sighed Callum. "Hurry up and open it!" Alex shot him a withering glare, that he ignored, as he was suddenly distracted by his earpiece.

"_Callum, you're in terrible danger!_" the Doctor's voice cried out.

"Tell me something I don't know," Callum replied. "Okay, wait, no, this is the part where you tell me something new's appeared to complicate things, isn't it?"

"_Err, yes, as it happens. Sorry._"

"Alright, what is it?" Callum said, rolling his eyes.

"_According to the TARDIS database, a Death Vortex should be completely impossible in your current location._"

"But you said befo-"

"_Yes, but I'm a thousand years old and I occasionally make mistakes, I'm sorry!_"

"Okay, so what's the big problem with the impossible Vortex?"

"_Well, there's two options really._"

"Go on?" Callum said. A dull clunk from behind him drew his attention and he turned to see Alex descending through the hatch.

"Get a move on, kid."

Callum rolled his eyes again, before he took a careful step over to the hatch. As he lowered himself down, the Doctor began to talk again.

"_Option one, the Vortex destabilises and rips that entire reality apart any second._"

"Okay, I don't like option one," Callum murmured, as he dropped to the metal grille floor. He was in a thin, empty corridor with sealed windowless doors at regular intervals all the way along. Keypads were placed next to each door, and Alex was already trying to hack into one. "Option two then?"

"_Option two, and, er, this is only a slight possibility, but that could be what's causing the storm._"

"I thought it was this ship that was causing the storm?" Callum said, closing the hatch to prevent the rain from splashing down on them, even though they were both already completely soaked.

"_Yes, well, like I said, it's only a slight possibility. Nothing concrete._"

"Any way to find out?"

"_Not sure..._" the Doctor said, pausing for a moment. Suddenly, a dull clunk interrupted him before he could speak again. "_Oh, Keith, no, not that bu- kkztkakt!_"

The signal cut out at that point in a burble of static and the earpiece went dead. Callum groaned and took his phone out his pocket, to see that the line was still active, informing him he had twenty-four minutes left.

"Crap," he murmured. "Okay, we need to hurry, Alex!"

"Don't distract me, idiot," growled Alex. "This is difficult work. Got it!" He stepped back as the doors slid open to reveal what seemed to be an elevator.

"This ship doesn't seem that big," Callum frowned. "Why would they need an elevator?"

"It goes sideways, not up and down," Alex said, stepping in and pointing at two arrow buttons that indicated left or right. Callum nodded in understanding and followed Alex through the doors.

The lift room was completely white, with pulsating blue light tubes that cast a blue glow on them as they entered. Alex took a moment before pressing down on the button that was indicating left.

"Where's this taking us then?" Callum asked.

"If I'm right," Alex replied, "it'll take us straight to the cockpit."

"So you reckon whatever's messing about with the timelines and causing the storm is there?"

"Not really," Alex said. "But it'll be easier to run a full scan of the ship and the outside environment from there. My scanner isn't powerful enough to pinpoint an actual location on our source."

"So really your scanner only really had a hunch that this was the source?" Callum asked, as the room jolted slightly as it slid along.

Alex shrugged. "Meh, it was close enough," he said, earning himself a glare from Callum.

"I've got twenty-two minutes here! I don't know if I've got time for hunches!"

"You've got the rest of your life!" pointed out Alex. Callum went to reply but he was suddenly interrupted by a blaring alarm.

"**Intruders located. Incineration sequence primed. Begin,**" a deep, mechanical voice echoed from above.

"Wh- what's going on?!" Callum yelled, as the alarm continued to wail and the blue lights turned red. Alex leaped to the doors and started desperately trying to open them.

"Security system," he replied through gritted teeth. "It's deadlocked the doors and started the incineration process!"

"Well, that's just great!" groaned Callum. "Could this day get any worse?"

"If you jinx us, I'll make sure I kill you twice," Alex replied, as he desperately tried to open the doors.

The red lights were getting brighter and brighter now, and the temperature was rapidly increasing. Callum was momentarily glad that the rise in heat had quickly dried him off, before immediately regretting it as he started to sweat. He took off his zipper and mopped his brow.

"Hurry up before we slow-roast to death!"

"Almost... got it."

"Not to rush you!" Callum cried, as the heat started to become unbareable.

"Shut the hell u- oh, I got it!" Alex snapped, the doors opening midsentence. The two of them dived out just in time as a large blast of flame erupted through the room. The doors shut behind them, shielding them from a jet of fire that had tried to escape outwards.

Breathing a sigh of relief, the two boys picked themselves up off the floor. They were in a room identical to the cockpit of a plane, with some more futuristic 'spacey-wacey' gizmos and whatchamacallits scattered across the console. Looking through the windows and past the rubble, they could see the smoke-filled dungeon corridor of the Castle that the ship had crashed into.

"That was too close," groaned Callum, sitting down on one of the three leather chairs.

"Hm," nodded Alex, sitting down on the one beside Callum. He reached over and started flicking switches and levers on the panel in front of him.

"What ya doing?" Callum asked. Alex rolled his eyes and stopped for a moment.

"Disabling the security systems so it doesn't try to fry us again, running a scan over the whole ship, and trying to see where the crew have gone."

"Oh! I never even thought about the crew! Where d'you think they'll be?"

Alex mumbled something in response, and before Callum could ask him to speak up, his earpiece bleeped into life again.

"_Ah, Hendrick, you're still alive!_" the Doctor's voice cried. "_That's always good! How are you doing?_"

"We're onboard the ship now, and Alex is running a scan to see if we can find where the source of all this is."

"_Ah, yes..._" the Doctor said, trailing off, and immediately raising suspicion.

"What is it?" Callum asked, worriedly. "Is everything okay?"

"_Well, you see, we found a theory. Well, Laura found a theory._"

"Right?"

"_You're not gonna like this..._"

"Callum," Alex said, trying to get the boy's attention.

"_It's the Death Vortex._"

"Callum, it's the Death Vortex!"

"What?!" Callum cried. "What about the Death Vortex?"

"The Death Vortex is the cause of all this! It's been manipulated somehow, and all that time energy it's absorbed is pouring out here!"

"Wait, wait, wait," Callum said, shutting his eyes and throwing his hands up, "Doctor, is that right?"

"_I'm afraid so, Hendrick,_" the Doctor said, grimly. "_We can't get the TARDIS through that. If we tried, we'd be torn up inside it a few billion times._"

"Okay, that's not good... What can we do then?" Callum asked.

"_Er, well..._"

"Doctor, stop stalling and just tell me!"

"_You're gonna have to go into the Vortex._"

"Y-you what?!" spluttered Callum, jumping up from his seat. Alex's gaze followed him as he began to pace up and down the cockpit. "Into the _Death_ Vortex? Emphasis on _Death_!"

"_We think so,_" the Doctor replied. "_It's a difficult situation but the TARDIS is under the impression there's a 58 percent success rate._"

"58 percent?!" squeaked Callum, throwing himself back into the pilot seat. "This is terrible! And I only have nineteen minutes left! How are we gonna get into the Vortex anyway?"

"We're in a spaceship, dummy!" Alex cried, gesturing the room around them. Callum facepalmed at his own blindness.

"Alright, so that solves that problem," Callum said. "But do you actually know how to fly this thing?"

"Easy peasy," Alex said, cracking his knuckles. "I've had to hijack a few shuttles in my time. A spaceship's just like a big shuttle!"

"You sound like the Doctor," Callum chuckled, receiving an indignant "_Oi!_" from the Time Lord in question.

"Anyway," Callum continued, "before we rush into this, who's to say we'll even make it? The crew of this ship never made it through... at least I don't think they did?"

"_Ah, yes, but this is the good bit! They didn't have a link with this Universe when they crossed into that one! You being on the phone to us serves as a link, and that should be enough to protect you from the effects of the Vortex._"

"So, wait, if we can go through the Vortex, what's stopping the TARDIS coming through?" asked Callum, getting more and more confused.

"_Because it's a one-way road now!_" the Doctor said, exasperatedly."_It's spewed all that time energy into that Universe, and now that world is running out of time, it's starting to push it all back out again!_"

"Alright, I guess that makes a little more sense," Callum nodded. "But wait, what about all the people in the Castle?"

"_Will you be able to get them onto the ship?_" the Doctor asked.

"Oh, I think I have an idea," Alex said, waggling a finger and grinning widely. "Callum, do everything I tell you and don't screw up, okay?"

"Why should I?" Callum pouted, crossing his arms, huffily.

"Because it'll save our lives, dummy," Alex snapped. "Now shut up and turn round! Here's a flying lesson for ya!"

* * *

Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor beamed happily as he finished his conversation with Callum. He had quickly explained Alex's plan, and assured them that it should only take a few minutes.

"So everything's going to be alright?" Keith said, full of hope.

"Most definitely," the Doctor nodded, before he suddenly frowned. "Well, maybe."

"58 percent... I'll take that chance," Laura smiled, clasping Keith's hand in hers. "No way we're losing Callum!"

"You know it!" Keith said, kissing her on the cheek. The Doctor, meanwhile, had bounded down to the doors and yanked them open.

"Right ahead of us!" he called up to the young couple. "Come check it out!"

The two of them followed after him, side-stepping Callum's creepy flickering hologram. Peering out the doors they could see that they were somewhere in deep space, where the only light seemed to be coming from a red nebula far off in the distance. The Death Vortex was, as the Doctor had said, directly ahead of them – maybe about 50 feet or so.

"So, that Death Vortex thing is gonna just spit out that ship, and all the people on it'll be okay, as long as we don't lose our link with Callum?"

"Yes, definitely, maybe, possibly."

"Oh, I enjoy these conversations so much," joked Keith, gazing outwards at the swirling black sphere, wondering how his best friend was doing on the other side of it.


	17. The Castle in the Storm (Part Five)

**A/N: Woo, update on time!**

* * *

"Okay, I'm gonna try and reverse slowly now, but the turbulence might be a bit of a pain in the ass," Alex said, putting his hand on a lever in front of him. "Make sure you keep that other lever held in the middle!" He looked up and exchanged a look with Callum. They both gulped and nodded determinedly.

"Let's do this," Callum said, leaning back in the white leather chair. Alex nodded again and wrenched the lever back and the dull red lights were replaced by bright white lights, illuminating the entire cockpit. An activation trilling sound rang from deep in the ship, and a thundering sound as the thrusters came to life.

"So far, so good," Alex said through gritted teeth. "Lever in place?"

"Yep," confirmed Callum.

"Alright, when I say so, push it as far forward as it goes. Got it?"

"Got it."

"Alright, dummy," Alex yelled over the increasing roar of the engines. "Now!" Callum gave him a rude hand gesture and whooped happily as he pushed the lever forward. The room shook and buzzed around them, and a shower of sparks rained down behind the two would-be pilots.

Carefully, Alex managed to navigate the ship out of the hole in the wall, the turbulence shaking the room wildly. As they began to rise and turn, the Doctor's voice crackled through the earpiece.

"_Callum, is everything going okay? You've got eleven minutes!_"

"We're flying! At least we are for now! Setting up obviously took a few minutes but Alex thinks he can definitely pilot this thing through the Vortex! What was our odds again?"

"_58 percent! But to be positive, that's more than half!_"

"I'll look at it that way then," Callum shouted over the noise. They were approaching the front of the castle now, and his heart was racing and the adrenaline was pounding throughout his body.

"Okay, Callum," Alex said, as the double doors came into sight. "Here's the tricky bit! You ready?"

"Ready," nodded Callum, gripping onto the hub of controls in front of him so hard his knuckles went white.

"Here...we... go!" Alex yelled, shoving down on the steering system in front of him. The ship shuddered violently as it tipped forwards, and Callum felt his stomach lurch, as if he was in a rollercoaster that had just went over a dive. They were falling now, heading straight for the doors. As their speed increased, tiny cracks began to form across the windows, and sparks continued to erupt.

"Crash shields up!" screamed Alex over the chaos, punching down on some controls to his right. There was a hiss as what appeared to be a blue filter came over the front window, just moments before the ship smashed through the doors, tearing the surrounding wall apart with it.

Callum held on for dear life as the ship continued to slide through the mess, across the entrance hall floor, his heart in his mouth the entire time. Finally, after several moments, the ship came to a halt, and the shaking subsided.

Shakily, the two boys stood up, and breathed a sigh of relief.

"_Damage level: 43 percent,_" informed the computer in a distorted voice.

"Thank god," sighed Alex. "Anything over 45 and we'd have been screwed!"

"Come on!" Callum said. "Time for part two of the plan!" They exited the cockpit and made their way back out the way they'd came, taking the long way after the destruction of the horizontal elevator.

"_Seven minutes, Hendrick!_" the Doctor warned.

"Don't worry, we'll make it!" Callum promised, as he pushed open the roof hatch. Alex joined him on top of the ship.

Fortunately, the commotion from the Entrance Hall had been enough to bring a crowd of about twenty lost people, among them the group of men from the library, the two gun-wielding women, the strange little girl, and three confused looking aliens. They all gazed up at the ship, seemingly too amazed by its sudden entrance to notice each others presence.

"Hey, everyone! No time to explain, but if you want to get home, get in here as quick as possible!" Callum bellowed, his voice echoing around the hall. "We've only got... six and a half minutes though, so we have to leave _now_!"

There was a clamour of conversation through the hall as the group of people suddenly noticed they weren't alone. Yet they didn't seem to make any effort to move. Callum facepalmed in irritation, and tried to shout out again to grab their attention, but they were making too much noise now.

"Okay, that's enough," roared Alex, holding his device up to his mouth, magnifying his voice throughout the hall. "Instead of talking, move your asses! We've not got time for this! If you ain't on this ship in the next minute, you're getting left behind!" Straight away, the group began to make their separate ways from across the room towards the ship. Callum blinked in astonishment and Alex gave him a wink before jumping back into the ship. "Get a move on, we've got a ship to fly!"

* * *

Only a couple of minutes later, Alex and Callum were back at the controls. Alex reached up and pushed the intercom button.

"Ladies, gentlemen and other such whatchamacallits, this is your captains speaking! Hold onto your hats and your bladders for the next several minutes, and our next stop is the Universe!" he announced to the latest crew.

"Two and a half minutes to go!" Callum said, as they reactivated the engines and the ship began to shake around them. The two boys whooped as they lifted off again, and moments later they were bursting back out of the castle doors.

The storm was still raging, and the rain was pounding on the windows.

"Okay, next stop: the Vortex!"

"And potentially death..."

"_Oh, stop being melodramatic, Hendrick!_" the Doctor cried through the earpiece.

"Hey, look at this!" Alex said, pointing at a screen in between the two of them. Angling to look, Callum saw a visual of the Castle as it suddenly seemed to flicker wildly. The Castle was suddenly enveloped in a square grid pattern and square-by-square, it began to disappear.

"Doctor, the Castle is disappearing! What's happening?" Callum exclaimed.

"_That world is collapsing! The time energy flow is too unstable now, and you've only got a minute and a half! Are you close enough to the Vortex yet?_"

"Can we go any faster?!" Callum cried, turning to Alex. Alex shook his head.

"No such luck," he said. "We go any faster and the engines could... uh, explode."

"Are we gonna make it?" Callum frowned.

"I don't know, idiot!" Alex snapped. "I'm not psychic!"

"Can't you do a prediction thing or something?" cried Callum, panic increasing.

"Yes, just let me do that while I steer and keep the engines stabilised! Just go with it!"

The next few moments seemed to drag out for a short eternity as they approached the Vortex. The spinning black orb was already beginning to flicker and fade.

"Thirty seconds!"

Callum shut his eyes tight and hoped for a miracle.

And then there was nothing but darkness.

* * *

"Callum! Callum! Are you there? Are you through?!" the Doctor yelled, as the eerie hologram flickered one last time before disappearing. No response came through. "Callum? _Callum!_"

The TARDIS console room fell silent. Laura fell back into the pilot seat and buried her face in her hands as she quietly began to sob. Keith sat down and pulled her in towards him.

The Doctor leaned over the console, his eyes bleary and full of pain.

"No... not again," he murmured. "Not. Again."

A tiny bleep suddenly rang through the console room.

_Bleep. Bleep. Bleep._

The Doctor's head snapped up, and he slid across the floor and wrenched at the scanner.

"Oh, you beauty!" he beamed as he read the single word flashing across the screen.

_INCOMING._

"Keith, Laura, hold on tight!" the Time Lord yelled happily as he punched down on the console. "This is gonna be a tricky landing!"

* * *

_Vworp! Vworp! Vworp!_

The TARDIS materialised right behind Callum and Alex on the cockpit as the ship was thrown out the Vortex and back into the Universe. The cockpit lights were flickering and shattering all around them in the console, and the cracks in the window were widening.

"Doctor!" yelled Callum, ecstatically, bouncing up from his seat.

"What the heck's that thing?!" Alex asked. "Is it yours?"

"Nah, I'm just a passenger," Callum explained, beaming widely as the door opened and the Doctor stuck his head out.

"And don't you forget it, Hendrick!" the Time Lord smiled. "Need a lift?"

* * *

Half an hour later, the TARDIS materialised in the Citadel of Eternal Light. The Doctor had dropped off the rest of the Castle's stolen inhabitants, and Alex had decided the Citadel was the best place for him to go.

Callum followed the cloaked boy out of the TARDIS and into a dim alleyway, a gentle rain falling on the cobbles. Skyscrapers and spires and sparkling lights were everywhere, and somewhere nearby, the pounding beat of club music was echoing out onto the streets. It reminded Callum of the Glasgow nightlife, down to the smell of fish and chips wafting through the air.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye," Callum said, looking upwards into the starry night sky.

"Hm, who knows," Alex replied quietly, his back turned. "The Universe is a funny place."

"True," chuckled Callum. They stood in silence for a moment, happy to be alive.

"Thank you," Alex murmured.

"Huh?"

"I said thank you, dummy!" Alex cried, spinning to face Callum.

"Oh," Callum blinked, taken aback. "Wh-why?"

"If I hadn't have met you, we'd never have made it out of there."

"Then I guess I owe you a thanks too," Callum smiled. "Just... take care of yourself, 'kay?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Alex grunted, sticking out his hand. Callum looked at him in confusion for a moment before he reached out and shook hands with the strange boy, before an idea came to him.

"Y'know, you could come with us if you wanted to?" he suggested. "The Doctor wouldn't mind, and there's always room for one more in the TARDIS."

"Nah, not my thing," Alex said, shaking his head and putting up his hood. "I'm not a people person."

"You don't say," chuckled Callum. "Alright! Til the next one then?"

"Til the next one," nodded Alex. "Catch you around, dummy."

"Catch you around, asshole," retorted Callum, opening the TARDIS door and flashing one last wide grin before stepping back into the blue box.

The cloaked boy allowed himself one little sad smile before he stepped out of the alley and out onto the streets, as the blue box dematerialised behind him.

* * *

"Well then," the Doctor said, flicking down a lever, "that's the end of all that then, eh?"

"Looks like it," nodded Callum. "It's good to be back!"

"It's good to _have_ you back!" Laura smiled, pulling him in for a familiar rib-crunching hug.

"I'm just glad that creepy hologram is gone!" shuddered Keith. "That thing gave me the heeby-jeebies!"

"Oi, don't go calling my hologram creepy!" pouted Callum as he was released from Laura's deathgrip. They joined the Doctor up at the console and Callum patted the console affectionately. "That was the longest hour of my life, so far!"

"Shall we try and make up for that then?" the Doctor beamed. "Planet Kaluga Majenta, the Summer world!" He ran around the console and adjusted some controls. "Three suns, red sand, and the purest water this side of the galaxy!"

The console came to life, and Callum's grin widened as he was surrounded by the familiar glow of the time machine as it rocketed off, next stop: Kaluga Majenta.

* * *

**Next Time: ****_Meanwhile in the TARDIS 7: Rain's Game_****!**


	18. Meanwhile in the TARDIS 7

**A/N: Posting a bit early, woo! This is where things ****_really _****start to get going! Thanks to my usual reviewers, and everyone who's been reading so far!**

**Reviewy-bit**

_**The10thDoctorRocks **_**- Hehe, I'm glad you liked it! I quite liked writing Alex, so I might bring him back some day!**

_**Canned it 2011-2012**_** - Thank you, haha! I'm not sure whether I'll have Callum learn the Doctor's name, cos this is set like before Series 7 and sorta separate from the whole "Silence will fall arc", but I might see if there's anything I can do after ****_The Name of the Doctor_**** this Saturday!**

* * *

The arrival of a stranger onboard the TARDIS had immediately caught the four travellers offguard, and they turned instantly as a masked man appeared through what appeared to be a rip in the air.

He wore a black robe with a silver zipper running down the middle, which he'd pulled straight up to the top, just obscuring the bottom of the white steel mask that covered his face. Looking out through red eyes, he observed the four of them as they gazed at him with varying degrees of shock and surprise, before his eyes locked on to the tallest of the two teen boys, looking back at him in a mixture of confusion and fear.

"Oi!" the Doctor cried down from the console, indignantly. "What do you think you're doing just... just appearing in here like that? This is private property... sort of!"

"**Oh, I must apologise,**" the masked man replied, the small device in his mask filtering his voice to distort it, making it sound more machine-like. Even still, the four TARDIS occupants could still tell it was intended in a mocking tone. It actually reminded Callum and Keith of Bane in the Batman film they had went to see not long back.

"What do you want?" the Doctor replied, wringing his hands as he took a cautious step towards the top of the stairs. "Who are you?"

"**I am... no-one of importance, Time Lord.**"

"Well, cheers for the vague answer," Keith muttered under his breath.

"What brings you onboard my TARDIS then?"

"**Hm? Ah, yes. Nothing in particular,**" the man replied. He was enjoying this little game. "**Think of it as a house call.**"

"What are you on about?" Callum asked, taking a step closer to the edge of the glass platform of the console room.

"**I'm sure you'll all find out soon enough, boy. If you pass the next test, that is.**"

"Test? What next test?!" the Doctor asked, looking more confused every second. "Wait, was there a first test?"

"**Well, Callum proved himself worthy of escaping the Castle! Though we did offer him a little assistance, but now we need to see what threat you pose when you're apart,**" the man chuckled, lazily inspecting the four of them."**So in fact, think of this as a game, a challenge, a competition, if you will! Courtesy of I, Rain, the Tengoka Gamemaster!**"

"What's that when it's at home then?" Keith smirked. "If you're just gonna keep saying stupid things you can leave right now!"

"**Oh, I will, ginger snap!**" the masked man said, taking his hand out his pocket and pointing it towards the four of them in one dramatic motion. "**However, **_**you**_** will be leaving first.**"

Callum, Keith, Laura and the Doctor all exchanged frantic looks as the man snapped his gloved fingers and a rip – similar to the one he had emerged from originally – appeared directly behind them. The man – Rain – flicked his hand, and an invisible force smashed into the two boys, sending them sprawling backwards into the rip.

"Woah, what's going o-" Keith yelled as he disappeared. Callum flailed in desperation but it was to no avail, as the rip fully absorbed the two of them, sealing shut behind them. The Doctor spun round on the spot to face the stranger.

"Where did you send them?" he said, urgent and dangerous.

"**Telling you would ruin the point of the game,**" Rain replied, coolly. "**And anyway, I'd be a bit more worried about yourselves first.**"

"What do you mean?" cried Laura. "What have you done to them? What's this got to do with the Castle?"

"**Oh, my dear girl, you'll find out in time! Everything is as it is for a reason, and the Castle served its purpose, but we need to see how the rest of you do! I have sent them far, far, **_**far**_** away,**" laughed the man. **"And yet so, so near. Don't worry though. They have each other.**" He paused for a moment and drew a small breath, before having a small chuckle. "**Unfortunately I can't say the same for the two of you.**"

With another snap of his fingers, Laura could only watch as the Doctor disappeared, his sonic screwdriver dropping to the glass floor.

"No!" Laura shrieked. "Doctor! _Doctor!_" She spun around to confront the masked man, just in time to see him give her a wave and fall back into the rip he had originally came through.

She dived off the side of the railing and tried to dive into the rip, to catch him, but once again she missed and simply smacked to the floor as the rip closed up. She was completely alone now.

"Doctor?" she yelled out again. "Callum? K-Keith... Oh god, what am I gonna do?!" She had no time to think about it however as the console suddenly exploded and the entire room began to go haywire. Bulbs smashed, glass shattered, sparks showered, the underside of the console erupted into flames and from deep within the TARDIS, a bell began to toll.

_Boom._

"Is that the cloister bell thingy?"

_Boom._

"Oh, what am I gonna do?" Laura cried as she lifted herself from where she had fell to the floor, and stumbled her way across the chaotic console room towards the main console itself.

_Boom._

She tried desperately to hit at switches and levers, in hope that the TARDIS would be able to help, but without the Doctor or Callum onboard, she had absolutely no idea what to do except for the scanner.

_Boom._

She grasped onto the scanner for dear life as the room shuddered and screamed around her. A small system of cracks had formed in the wildly accelerating time rotor, and the lights that hadn't shattered were flickering on and off rapidly. Turning the scanner on, she smacked the side of it with her hand to get it to focus, in hopes that she could see where the TARDIS was taking her.

_Boom._

Instead, only a visual of the time vortex was displayed, with a fast moving red blip indicating the TARDIS itself. Before Laura could even read anything else from the screen, another alarm went off, shrill and constant, in comparison to the dull toll of the cloister bell.

_Boom._

Words flashed across the screen, again and again. In between the shaking, and through the noise, Laura could only make out the words: "Vessel approaching".

With one final toll of the bell, the console exploded, and Laura was sent sprawling to the floor, smacking her head right off the railing behind her. She tried with all her strength to get up, but the darkness was overwhelming. The last thing she saw through her bleary vision was the lights flickering and going out one by one, leaving her alone in the dark.

* * *

**NEXT TIME: ****_The Ghost in the Machine_**


	19. The Ghost in the Machine (Part One)

**A/N - I've been really up to date with... er, updating lately, woo! This episode is gonna have elements of ****_Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS, _****and ****_Nightmare in Silver_****! Hope you enjoy, and please leave a review! :)**

* * *

"Doctor!" yelled Callum for the fifty-seventh time, to no avail. "_Doctor!_"

"Callum, we've been walkin' for hours," croaked Keith, pushing his red hair off of his sweaty forehead. "I don't think they're coming for us yet!"

"I only got back from that bloody Castle two days ago," Callum groaned. "I don't wanna be stuck somewhere all over again!"

"I know, man, but there's no point shouting every five minutes," Keith said, sadly. "We're gonna need to find water soon though – I dunno how much longer we'll last in this place!"

Callum nodded grimly. They had appeared – or more literally, been spat out – in the middle of an empty grey wasteland, where only the destroyed, burnt-out husks of buildings indicated there had once been life. The sky was a strange orange, with dark black clouds drifting lazily across it, like inkblots on parchment. The heat made the two boys feel sluggish and tired, and yet there was no sign of rest, or water, for miles. On the horizon, a massive ice-blue moon was rising, casting an eerie glow over the plain.

"We can't exactly stop here," Callum pointed out. "I think our best bet is just to keep walking."

"What way though?" Keith asked, kicking some pebbles, sending a small cloud of dust rising upwards.

"The horizon," said Callum, after a few moments consideration. "There's no North Star, so we're gonna just have to follow the moon!"

"Hm, alright then," Keith replied as he took off his denim jacket and tied it around his waist. "I just hope we find something to drink soon – I'm gasping!"

"I know how you feel," sighed Callum. "Come on, let's get going! We might be able to find somewhere to rest before it gets properly dark. Seems like it's only evening."

A good half hour later, the sky had darkened and the moon was now high above them, still casting its ghostly blue glow on the plains. Luckily, the moonlight was bright enough that they could still see out in all directions.

"Callum," Keith said, squinting as he pointed ahead, "I think that's the edge of this place! We might be able to find water underneath!"

"If we can get to it," Callum murmured, rubbing his eyes. "Alright, let's go check it out!" The two friends quickly made their way to the edge, their eyes widening as they looked down.

Far below them was a large village, a sprawling cluster of about a hundred and fifty domed buildings, gathered around a tall centre building with a flat roof, and what appeared to be a massive antenna on top of it. Surrounding the village was just forest for as far as the eye could see, leading on to more mountains far off in the distance.

Callum grinned happily, while Keith bounced up and down in excitement.

"_Yes!_" he cried, punching the air. "Finally a little good luck! Maybe we can even find some way of getting in touch with Laura and the Doctor!"

"Hey, if we're lucky they might even be down there too!" Callum said, optimistically.

"I hope they're okay wherever they are," Keith replied, staring up into the sky for a moment. "Okay then, race ya to the bottom!"

* * *

It took Laura a moment after her eyelids fluttered open to remember what had happened and where she was. She pushed herself off the floor and had a quick glance around the room. It was in complete darkness with the exception of the time rotor, that was casting an ethereal green tint on the console around it.

Quickly ascending the stairs, Laura pulled the scanner down and switched it on, in hopes that it would show her something of use, but unfortunately it was all strange spinning Gallifreyan symbols – the only language the TARDIS didn't translate.

_Wait a sec,_ she thought, _the Doctor and Callum always say the TARDIS is alive. Surely it could help me out..._

"T-TARDIS?" Laura said, looking up at the time rotor. "Can you help me? I don't know what to do!"

She listened intently for a bleep or a rumble or a wheeze or just some sort of indication that the TARDIS had heard her, but there was nothing but silence.

"Maybe... maybe there's something in the library that can help," Laura said to herself, doubtfully. "I could maybe go outside and have a look around, but I don't want to risk it..."

She put her hand into her pocket and a sudden realisation hit her as she felt her phone.

_Of course I could just phone one of them,_ she thought. _I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner._

However, a few moments later, she was back to square one, after phoning both Keith and Callum multiple times with no response from either of them.

"So much for 'phone anywhere in the Universe'," she sighed. "Oh, and I'm already talking to myself!"

_Hmph, I'll just pretend the TARDIS is actually listening to me._

"So anyway, I guess my best option is to try and find something of use in the library. Luckily my phone torch is still working."

And with that, she made her way up the next flight of glass stairs, away from the comforting green glow of the time rotor, and into the darkness.

* * *

After reaching the bottom of the cliffs, Callum and Keith had walked through a short forest path before arriving at a river. Walking downwards, they had found a bridge that lead across to the village entrance, but there appeared to be some sort of barricade blocking their path, made up of an ensemble of crates, rusty sheets of metal, and an assortment of barrels and wooden chests, along with three bookcases and what appeared to be a circular dinner table.

"So, uh, how do we get through that?" Keith frowned. "I get the feeling they won't want us disassembling their barricade."

"Hm, true, but that's not the problem," Callum said, worriedly.

"Really? What's the problem then?" Keith asked, scratching his head in confusion.

"If they've got a barricade on the only way into the village, presuming that this _is_ the only way into the village, then what is it they're trying to keep out?"

"Why is it I just got goosebumps when you said that?" groaned Keith. "Hey, wait a sec!"

He pointed over to the other side, where a young girl was waving her arms frantically to attract their attention. She seemed to be yelling something but it was difficult to make out from the distance between them.

"What's she trying to say d'you think?"

"Not a cl-"

The sudden clash of metal on wood from behind them caught their attention and they turned on the spot, yelling out at the sight at the end of the bridge, only a good thirty paces away. It was what appeared to be a metal man, with a blank face and a glowing blue light at the centre of its chest. It had strange handles coming out of the sides of its head, meeting at the top, and its empty eye holes had small teardrops at the corners.

"Wh-what the hell is that thing?" yelped Keith, taking a step back.

"Not a clue, but I have a horrible feeling it's what they're trying to keep out!"

"And I have a horrible feeling you might be right!"

The metal man began to step towards them, surprisingly quiet in comparison to how it had first drew their attention to it.

"What do we do? Do we jump in the river?!" Keith cried, as they pressed their backs against the barricade, desperately trying to think of an escape.

"Not a clue! That river's flowing pretty fast, and we could end up anywhere!"

"Right now I'd rather take my chances with the river than that thing!"

"Try and climb this stuff!" Callum cried, turning and grasping onto the edge of something above him, pushing himself up. The metal man was drawing closer, only about ten paces away now, and it had reached an arm out, menacingly. A rush of fear travelled through Keith's body, motivating him to quickly scramble up the barricade.

A few seconds later, they were both safely halfway up the barricade, even though it was only about fifteen feet. The metal man stopped at the foot of the barricade and looked up at them with its empty gaze, and the two boys stopped climbing.

For one long moment, there was a terrified silence as the two boys looked up from the metal man and exchanged glances. Then in a strange mechanical like voice, the man announced: "_Upgrade impossible. Unable to capture._"

With a sudden burst of speed, the metal man disappeared back across the bridge in a silver blur, leaving the two boys relieved and completely terrified.

"Wh-what just happened?" squeaked Keith.

"I – I think it changed its mind," said Callum, sighing with relief as he leaned back and gazed upwards.

"Hey, you two! Climb over here!" yelled a female voice from the other side of the barricade. Callum and Keith exchanged a look, deciding it was best to get over to safety.

Scrambling over the rest of the barricade, the two boys hopped down onto the village end of the bridge, where two young girls and an old man were standing. The girls seemed to be sisters – one about the same age as them, and the other a good few years younger – with long blonde hair tied with braids, and large eyes full of curiosity. Their hands were clasped together tightly, with the younger girl also holding the hand of the old man. He was stooped over, with a wooden walking stick, and a small pair of wire glasses perched on the bridge of his bulbous red nose.

"What were you two young 'uns doing out there? It's not safe!" the old man croaked.

"I think they're from another village, grandpa," the youngest girl said, timidly, tugging on the sleeve of the old man's green jumper.

"We were lost on the plain up there! We had to climb down the cliff!" Keith cried.

"All the way up there? What the heck were you two doing all the way up there?" the elder girl cried.

"We sort of got separated from our friends," Callum replied, scratching the back of his head. "Uh, we were in our ship and some weird guy in a mask came onboard and... did... _something_, and he must have sent us here."

"Spaceship?!" the youngest girl squeaked. "Why does everyone else get to go in a spaceship except me?!"

"Hush, Mimi," said the old man fondly. "You'll have your turn someday. Anyway, you two, you best come back to the inn with us if you're both lost out here. It isn't safe outside the village what with the Cybermen."

"The Cybermen?" Callum echoed. "Why does that sound familiar?"

"Is that what that robot dude was?" Keith said.

"Hm, yes, though cyborg may be a better term for them," the old man said, as they began to make their way along the rest of the bridge towards the large village gate.

"A cyborg? Are you telling me that thing was like... alive?!" gaped Keith.

"Wow, you're definitely not from around here, huh?" the elder of the two girls said, walking hand-in-hand with the younger girl, Mimi.

"Well, uh, no..." Callum said. "Where... and when are we?"

"This is Elkoam Village, on the planet Tiristian," the old man said.

"And the year is 2313," the elder girl said.

"Hm, three hundred years in our future," Callum said, as they approached a three-storey inn, where waxy orange candlelight lit through several windows. A sign above the door indicated the inn was called _The Rose and Crown_.

Holding the door open, the elder girl let the old man and Mimi pass before gesturing for Callum and Keith to follow them. They found themselves in a comfy fire-lit room, with large red chairs and couches, and some tables for eating meals. A staircase next to the check-in desk beside the door lead up to the next floor.

"Come sit down and we'll have a chat," the old man said. "I'm Mr Rathbone, and these are my granddaughters, Ella and Mimi. One of which should be going up to bed."

Mimi pouted for a moment, before wrapping her arms round the old man for a hug.

"Okay, n'night, pappy!" she said. "N'night... uh, what are your names?"

"I'm Callum, and this is Keith," Callum said as the old man shuffled into the largest and most weathered looking leather chair, and Keith plonked down on the sofa next to him.

"N'night, Keith and Callum!" Mimi replied, brightly. "Goodnight, Ella!"

"Goodnight, kiddo," smiled Ella, as the little girl decided it was her turn for a hug, before she turned on her heel and headed for the stairs, disappearing up them a moment later.

"Help yourself to water," Mr Rathbone said kindly, pointing a wrinkled finger at a large water jug and some glasses on the table nearest them. Keith thanked him and grabbed the jug, quickly pouring a glass and taking a grateful glug. Callum followed suit, albeit a little slower, before placing his glass down on the table.

"So..." he said, "Cybermen?"


	20. The Ghost in the Machine (Part Two)

**A/N - As always, thank you to the few reviewers I have, haha! Part Three won't be posted til Thursday after next, I'm afraid, but I'll make it a longer chapter just to make up for the delay!**

* * *

The TARDIS corridors were incredibly creepy in the dark, and Laura made a silent promise to herself that she'd start carrying about a good torch, as her phone light didn't seem willing to co-operate after a few minutes – something she put down to the dodgy signal in whatever part of the Universe she was in, even with her soniced up Superphone.

However, it only took her a few minutes longer than usual to stumble across the Library, and she was pleased to find that it was bathed in light coming from oil lamps all over the room that seemed to be showing no signs of flickering or dying out.

"Thank god this whole place doesn't rely on... hm, does it count as electricity, or some weird alien energy stuff?"

Receiving no sign of reply from the still unresponsive TARDIS, she decided her best bet was to search under 'T' for TARDIS to see if there was some guide or book that would be of assistance to her.

Three floors up she found the 'T' section, and lifting an oil lamp on its little stand, she made her way along the aisle, inspecting the titles of dusty tomes and sealed scrolls, in hopes that something would jump out to her and help.

"TARDIS, TARDIS, TARDIS, TARDIS," she muttered as she searched, in the hopes that the psychic interface that the sonic screwdriver operated in also applied to the TARDIS Library.

Suddenly a book seemed to fall off the top of the bookcase, and picking it up off the floor, Laura quickly inspected the spine, in hopes that it was what she was looking for.

The book's cover was blue leather, with about 500 pages or so, and a familiar name was written on the spine in a recognisable scrawl.

"Thank god I can read your handwriting, Callum," Laura smiled. "I hope this is of some help."

Sitting down on the floor, she put the book on her lap and began to flip through. It seemed to be Callum's journal, in which he'd detailed each of his adventures with the Doctor. There had been about thirteen with the Doctor and Amy, then the story of their adventure on the S.S. Bermuda, where Laura and Keith had been dragged along.

The page after this didn't seem to make much sense, however, as it just seemed to be a random list of words:

**Yellow. Tyger. Nine. Eight? The Triangle. Maxie – a soldier? Dreams. Three? Two girls – or was it three? Memory. Nightmares?**

Then below the list, four words were underlined and a strange symbol – an upside-down triangle with a lightning bolt through it – was scribbled in.

The Triangle will fall?

Laura frowned, wondering what on earth Callum had meant when he had been writing all this stuff. Presumably it was just bits and pieces of different trips he'd taken. Though the mention of the Triangle triggered some sort of memory in Laura's mind, except she just couldn't quite put her finger on it.

Skimming the next hundred or so pages, she finally caught up to the last entry – the day after Callum had escaped the mysterious Castle. Not finding anything of use, she flipped to the back page, and gave a silent cheer as a small paper booklet slid out, with _TARDIS for Dummies _scrawled on it in Callum's handwriting.

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" Laura said, standing to her feet and pocketing the booklet.

She descended to the bottom level and placed Callum's journal on a table near the door. Picking up another oil lamp on its stand, she made her way back out into the silent pitch-black corridors, hoping she could find her way back to the console room.

* * *

Once she returned to the deserted console room, she placed the oil lamp down on the pilot seat and smoothed out the little paper instruction booklet Callum had put together. Flicking through it quickly, she managed to get a rough guide on the very basics – as Callum had probably ended up commiting most of the stuff he'd learned from the Doctor to memory. Thankfully, there was enough information for her to work out how to run a basic scan...

If the console was actually responsive...

"I-I don't know what to do," stammered Laura, furiously flipping through Callum's notes, hoping there would be something about switching the conso-

_Laura._

The word seemed to have been written by an invisible hand, completely different from Callum's handwriting, and Laura took a moment to rub her eyes and prod the paper before deciding she hadn't imagined it. More words began to appear.

_Laura, it's the Doctor. No time to explain. Get to the engine room straight away!_

"The engine room?" mouthed Laura, frowning. "Where the heck is that?"

* * *

"The history of the Cybermen is a confusing one," the old man said, lighting a polished pipe and taking a long inhale. "Some reports indicate their beginnings trace back to the planet Mondas, while others say they all died out until those from another Universe made their way into our own.

"The one thing that can be agreed on is that they were once human. In their need to survive and more or less live forever, they decided the only option was to 'upgrade' themselves."

"That thing that came after us wasn't human though!" Keith spluttered. "It was a robot!"

"Not a robot, lad," the old man said, shaking his head and exhaling a stream of red smoke. "A metal suit, a life support system, capable of keeping the human brain within still fully alive without withering or decaying. Apparently they believe the brain to be the only needed part of the body, as I haven't seen any evidence to suggest that they use any other parts of the body in their conversion process."

"Th-that's crazy!" stammered Keith, eyes widening.

"Unfortunately it's the truth though," Ella said, having a sip of her water. "And these Cybermen just seem to take everything we throw at them."

"How d'you mean?" Callum asked. "It couldn't handle climbing the barricade, so it can't be too big a deal, right?"

"Just be thankful that one was running low," Ella replied, gravely. "The first night they arrived we lost eighteen villagers fending them off, and that was only a squad of five."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Callum said, quietly. "How long has it been since they arrived?"

"The craft they had been travelling in crashed down on the clifftop six days ago," Mr Rathbone said, taking another puff of his pipe. "We sent a scout crew out to investigate, and the next day we received their last communication."

"What did it say?" asked Callum, leaning forward.

"See for yourself," Mr Rathbone said. He pointed with his cane over to a large mirror above the fireplace and barked, "On!"

The mirror suddenly turned black and flickered to life, like a TV screen, displaying what appeared to be a map of the village and the surrounding woodland in several shades of blue. The two boys followed Rathbone and Ella as they made their way over to inspect it.

"Display communication K12-40," Rathbone said, prodding the screen gently with his index finger. A tiny light circled where his finger was pressed against the screen for a moment before the image seemed to zoom outwards, until the village was a red blip on the map, and the wasteland at the top of the cliff was now visible. Some other red and blue blips were now in shot too, and small labels branched out from them displaying different number codes.

K12-40 was branching out from a blue blip up near a slightly larger red blip. As they watched, the label widened out, and a video began to play.

It was a shaky camera recording of a man with a face covered in dried blood. He looked to be in his mid-20s, with close cut dark hair and terrified looking eyes, dark shadows lining them. As he spoke, he seemed to be stumbling around, his eyes darting from side to side.

"_Is anyone receiving this? Everything's gone wrong!_" - he was interrupted by a burble of static – "_Marback Town has been destroyed._" He started to sob. "_Th-the rest of the unit is d-dead. Or... worse. It's Cybermen! Th-they've started c-converting! They're running low on parts so they've only m-managed half-conversions._" There was a sudden strange burble of noise and the man gave a strangled scream. Whatever he was using to record tipped and a silver face flashed onscreen for a moment.

The image cut out for several seconds, before the image displayed the man being pinned to the ground, with a Cyberman holding him down. The man writhed and shook but to no avail as the Cyberman announced in its steely drone: "_Upgrade in progress._"

The video flickered and shrunk away, the blue map returning to take up the screen.

"Hm, this doesn't sound good at all," Callum said, biting his lip.

"Wait a sec," Keith frowned, "those ruined buildings we saw earlier, was that that town he was talking about? Marback?"

"Was there any signs of life?" Rathbone asked.

"Not a thing," said Callum, shaking his head. "Just some burnt out ruins and stuff..."

"There were a hundred people in that town," sighed Ella. "All of them gone now."

Keith went to speak, but he was interrupted by the front door being thrown open by a dishevelled looking man wearing something that looked to be a cross between the uniforms of a soldier and a miner.

"Mr Rathbone, sir," the man cried, "the main CPU has detected a massive power surge in the catacombs!"

"The catacombs?!" spluttered Rathbone. The man nodded gravely in response. "Ruddy hell! We best inspect this straight away! Ella, you best go wake up your sister so we can head over to the main CPU building."

"Okay, grandpa!" nodded Ella, heading for the stairs.

"You two boys better come along too," Rathbone said to the two boys. "Safety in numbers."

"If only the Doctor was here," sighed Keith. "I feel way out of our depth here!"

* * *

With nothing but the oil lamp from the TARDIS library, Laura had been making her way along the dark, eerie corridors for a good ten minutes. Every so often she'd hear a creak or groan from the mainly silent time machine, and she'd take a few seconds to calm down.

Fortunately for her, the doors still seemed to be working, possibly thanks to the TARDIS' psychic interface.

On the other hand, the interface didn't seem quite as happy to show her where exactly the engine room was, and she doubted there'd be a map to help her in the library, so she didn't even bother looking.

Finally, after what felt like forever, she found herself in a lit corridor.

"Ugh, yes! I must actually be getting somewhere now!" she said, triumphantly. She quickened her pace, in search of a door, but she just seemed to be going on and on, down corridors that began to criss-cross or get tighter to navigate, until she found herself at a dead end.

She stopped and rolled her eyes, taking a second to remember what way she had gone, moments before the lights flickered wildly and a shockwave ripped through the corridor, shaking her surroundings wildly.

Picking herself off the floor, she turned to see that a set of doors had appeared in the space where the dead end had previously been. As she watched, the doors slid open and she found herself shielding her eyes from a blinding white light.

"Oh god, I better not be dead," she said, stumbling forwards through the doorway...

...and into an empty white void. She tentatively made her way forwards, glancing back to check the door was still there. There didn't seem to be any sort of wall behind it, so it pretty much looked like the door was being suspended in thin air. It was after this observation that she realised she couldn't see the floor.

"Ah, so you found it then!" cried a voice from close by. She swivelled round to see the Doctor standing a few metres away, looking rather dishevelled in comparison to how he had appeared when she had last saw him hours ago. He wasn't wearing his tweed jacket, and his shirt sleeves were rolled up. As she took a step closer she realised what she was looking at was some sort of hologram.

"Doctor!" Laura beamed. "I don't understand what's happening!"

"Don't worry," the Doctor replied, "I'll try to explain, but first you need to use the psychic interface to set up the engine for an emergency reboot!"

"Uh, where is the engine? And where are you for that matter?"

"Ah, it's a bit complicated," the Doctor said, sheepishly scratching the back of his head.

"How do you mean?" Laura asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, I'm sort of stuck in a time eddy, but it keeps flickering in between two different places: here and some sort of underground caves," the Doctor sighed. "I can't find any way to properly manifest in either place – nothing to lock on to, y'see."

"Oh, that doesn't sound too good," frowned Laura. "Okay, so, uh, how can I help?"

"This is gonna be tricky," the Doctor replied, rubbing his hands together. "I hope you're paying attention!"


	21. The Ghost in the Machine (Part Three)

**A/N - Late update, and I haven't managed to write as much as I'd promised, sorry! But, yeah, I'll try and catch up soon enough! Sorry for the delay!**

* * *

The main CPU was housed in what had once been a library. Now, instead of bookshelves, the room was full of rows and rows of computer desks that were glowing and flashing, while a rhythmic hum filled the air. Only a few of these desks were currently manned, by several people – men and women – all wearing the same jumpsuit-uniform as the man who had burst into the inn who was now leading them across the room.

As Callum and Keith followed the old man and his granddaughters down the rows of desks, Callum was reminded of the room in the Space Vatican where he had been trapped by Weeping Angels as they came to life from the screens. He felt a ripple of fear travel up his spine – like it did everytime he remembered the Angels.

"Just through here," murmured the man, opening a door at the end of the room and stepping aside to let the small group pass through.

The annex room they had now entered was completely empty besides a large holographic green sphere that was spinning rapidly, and occasionally jutting out several green spikes of light.

"So, I'm guessing this is the main CPU, right?" Keith asked, as the man in the jumpsuit began to explain something to Rathbone in a hushed tone.

"Yeah," nodded Ella. "It was originally housed in the town square, but we had to move all our computers and stuff in here when the Cybermen arrived. Keeping it all in the library means we can keep it all in check without worrying about anything getting intercepted or messed up."

"Ah, makes sense," said Callum, leaning over to gaze into the sphere.

"Step back, lad," Rathbone said, waving his stick. "Look at the wrong piece of information and your brain'll get muddled. Need to know what you're looking for, y'see."

"Oh, sorry," murmured Callum, stepping back and feeling a little embarrassed. Keith gave a little smirk, earning him a nudge in the ribs from Callum.

"So, what's the deal anyway?" Keith asked. "What's the thing about the cata-things?"

"Catacombs," corrected Mimi, sleepily.

"There's an unidentified signal," the man in the jumpsuit said. "Oh, I don't recognise you two..."

"We're outsiders – I'm Callum, he's Keith," replied Callum, quickly. "Came down the cliffside. Anyways, what's with the signal then?"

"Ah, I'm Bran, head engineer," replied the man, pulling some glasses out of one of his pockets and sliding them on his nose. "The signal is particularly strange in that it seems to exist in four dimensions."

"And for those of us who aren't experts in technobabble."

"Well, it's standard for the signals we receive to only exist in one dimension. The Cybermen seem to work on a two dimension range, but this... this is something else! Collosal power, and it seems to be ebbing and flowing, as if it's alive!"

"Could it be?" Keith said, turning to look at Callum as the two boys had the exact same thought.

"The TARDIS!" cried Callum. "Sounds like it! Bran, is there any way you could reply or identify it?"

"I think so, but it might take an hour or so."

"Hm, might be too long," frowned Callum, chewing his lip thoughtfully. "How far off are these catacombs?"

"Built into the cliff," Ella replied, twirling a strand of hair. "Well, under to be more precise."

"So, we're talking about twenty minutes back then?"

"You can't actually be thinking of going back out there, can you?!" spluttered Rathbone. Callum smiled in response.

"It looks like our best option, really," Keith admitted. "If that _is_ the TARDIS, it must be having trouble landing if it just keeps coming and going. And that means we might not have time to waste in getting back."

"But there's Cybermen out there!" Mimi said, worriedly. "It's not safe outside the village."

"I know," sighed Callum, thrusting his hands in his pockets. "But really, we can't risk wasting an hour or two finding out whether we're right or not."

Rathbone shook his head in disbelief for a moment.

"You're both incredibly reckless... and stupid, might I add -"

"Oh, cheers!"

"- but if you're planning on heading out to the catacombs, I suppose we best supply you with some equipment. Bran, pinpoint that signal and get a trace on it, then send a printout through the inn screen, straight away!"

"Yes, sir!" nodded Bran, taking a step closer to the sphere and mould his hands around it like he was shaping clay.

"Now, you lot, back to the inn," Rathbone said, nodding determinedly and leading them through the doorway.

"Now we're getting somewhere," said Keith, happily. Callum nodded – only half-listening. There was something niggling at the back of his mind.

_Tengoka..._

* * *

"It just won't stabilise, Doctor!" groaned Laura, taking a step back from the main console.

With the Doctor's guidance down in the engine room she had been able to reloop emergency residual power cells to provide the console with enough energy to keep it functional for a few hours. But now that she had returned to the console room she'd found that even after locking on to the Doctor's "sort-of" location, there was no way of landing.

"Hm, something in the environment must be preventing the TARDIS from landing then," the Doctor said, gazing up at the erratically moving time rotor. "If only I could-"

And with that he disappeared. Laura wasn't particularly alarmed at this point as he'd done it a few times now. She pulled down the scanner and prodded a button that displayed the time the Doctor had been manifested onboard the TARDIS for each time.

"Three minutes every time," she murmured. "I was right. Three minutes here, three minutes there!"

Before she could do anything else, however, there was a sudden loud grating all around her as the room around her lurched violently. The lights began to flash red and the scanner changed to reveal the flashing words: _TRACTOR BEAM – UNIDENTIFIED SOURCE_.

"The shields aren't up," realised Laura, clutching onto the scanner, her knuckles going white with the force of her grip. The room seemed to tip for a moment, and her feet lifted off the floor, but thankfully a moment later she was standing back on the glass.

Unfortunately, the room was still shaking wildly and she saw no possible way of doing anything to stop it. She'd seen the Doctor – and Callum, once or twice – fiddling with some switches that apparently functioned with the shields, but for the life of her she couldn't remember which panel of the console they were on.

Finally, moments later, there was a large groan from deep down below and the time rotor subsided its strange movements. Laura fell to the floor and lay there for a moment, gasping for air and her heart pounding wildly. She closed her eyes and exhaled slowly.

And then the doors were kicked open.

Lurching up, Laura turned to see two metal figures standing in the doorway. They were about six feet tall, with blank, expressionless faces with the exception of eyeholes and a thin slit where a mouth would be.

"Wh-who are you?!" she cried, standing to her feet and taking a cautious step back.

"_Initial scans indicate one unit liable for upgrading._"

"What?!" squeaked Laura, stumbling further back.

The metal men inclined their heads to face her and immediately started to pace forward. Suddenly, the Doctor reappeared right beside her and cried out.

"Cybermen! Laura, run!"

"Run where?! I'll just get lost if I go further into the TARDIS," cried Laura in a panic.

"Oh, follow me for now and we can try and lose them!" groaned the Doctor, running off up the stairs. The two Cybermen were ascending the first set of stairs and Laura quickly made her mind up, bolting up the glass stairs after the Doctor.

* * *

Back in the inn, the two boys were thanking Rathbone and the two girls for all their help when Bran, the engineer, burst in through the door.

"Mr Rathbone, sir, I've got a lock on that signal! It seems to be coming from directly underneath Marback Town now!"

"Underneath?" frowned Rathbone, relighting his pipe. "Surely the catacombs don't extend that far?"

"There was rumours of an old tunnel cunnecting Marback to the catacombs a long time back," Bran nodded. "Nothing we could pick up before, but now that the signal is branching out we can map it all out on the CPU!"

"Ah, excellent, man!" nodded Rathbone approvingly. "Have you been able to do it yet?"

"Not completely, but it should only take half an hour."

"In that case, you two lads are best off sticking around for half an hour til we can sort you a map of this new route!"

"Hm, he does have a point," Callum said. "And now we know that if that _is_ the TARDIS then it's landed somewhere!"

"I suppose so," sighed Keith. "I just hope Laura's alright wherever she is."

"Hm, I have to go make a call," Rathbone said, "Ella, please show these boys the kitchen so they can get themselves something to eat while they wait."

* * *

"Doctor!" whispered Laura, as they continued onwards down the darkened corridors. "I think we've lost them."

"Don't underestimate them, Laura," the Doctor said, gravely. "I suppose we can count ourselves lucky that they seem to be bashed up, but all the same, they're still dangerous. Mind you, they look a little different to how I saw them last time..."

"Lovely," replied Laura, sarcastically. "How do we get rid of them though?!"

"Not a clue," the Doctor said in frustration. He gestured for her to follow him through a doorway. "It'd be a lot easier if I didn't keep appearing and disappearing!"

"What's in here?" she asked as they stepped in to the dark room.

"Zero Room," the Doctor replied as the doors slid shut behind them suddenly, and the room seemed to light up with a strange pale glow.

"And what does a Zero Room do?" frowned Laura.

"Should keep you safe, if anything else," the Doctor said, giving her a small smile. "They can't exactly do anything to me, seeing as I'm still really stuck in the time eddy."

"So, what are we going to do then? We can't just sit in here forever!"

"No, but we can wait it out a while and then try and get back to the console room," the Doctor replied.

Laura sighed and lay down on the floor and gazed upwards into nothingness.

"I just wish Callum and Keith were here."

And the Doctor disappeared.

* * *

"Right, you two," Rathbone said to Callum and Keith as they demolished their way through another plate of a strange bright yellow tomato pasta, "I've arranged three of our men to escort you."

"Mnf, dunbe daff!" protested Keith through a mouthful of food. Rathbone narrowed his eyes and Keith shrunk back down.

"You were lucky getting here the first time without being killed," he pointed out, "let's not risk it again, ay?"

"Fair enough," nodded Callum, finishing his last forkful of pasta and wiping the corner of his mouth with his sleeve. "But it's still a big risk!"

"Don't be concerned about us, kid," replied a man with close-cropped grey hair as he entered the inn's kitchen. He had a strange scar running down the right side of his face. He was followed by two blank-faced looking men with dark hair and strangely bright orange eyes. "I'm Ellis, but most folks round here call me Sarge. And these are the twins, Backo and Drakus."

"Oh, hey," Callum said, doing a quick two-fingered salute, "I'm sorry if this is any trouble to you guys, honest!"

"No need to apologise," Sarge said, crossing his arms. "If that tunnel's been uncovered it could prove dangerous. We have to assess it and decide whether or not it could be trouble."

"Ah, fair enough," said Callum again. "Uh, I guess you guys'll be taking the lead then."

"That's right," nodded Sarge with a tight-lipped smile. He seemed to be in his early-50's, and instead of the blue-ish jumpsuits that the engineers were wearing, his was green and black. He wore a heavy duty black zip-up vest with a silver badge pinned on the left breast pocket. "Don't worry about these two, by the way. They don't speak."

"Not big talkers?" asked Keith, some pasta hanging out the corner of his mouth.

"They don't have tongues," replied Sarge, simply.

"Oh," grimaced Keith, sticking out his own tongue and pulling a face.

"Grandfather, I'm going with them," Ella announced, striding into the kitchen. She had changed from the nightclothes she had been wearing before to one of the similar looking jumpsuits. Like the three men she was now wearing a heavy vest, except where theirs had the silver badge, hers was a red cross.

"Ella, dear, you know it's safer to stay here," sighed Rathbone. "Please don't go out there!"

"I have to, grandfather!" Ella said, flipping one of the braids of her hair out of her face. "I may only be an apprentice but I still know what I'm doing."

"Medic, yeah?" Callum asked, pointing at her badge. "You don't need to come with us, you know – we've already caused enough hassle here!"

"Hardly your fault," Ella laughed, "but I know for a fact the other medics are all busy, and I have to play my part for now."

"Very well then, my dear," sighed Rathbone, before turning his head to the two boys, "I must ask you to do your best to look out for my granddaughter."

"Of course," Callum promised. "Honestly, you've all been so kind, it's the least we could do!"

"Yes, well then, you better get a move on!" Rathbone said. "Bran's sent a copy of the map through."

"We'll be off then," Sarge nodded. "Come along, you three, and don't lag behind."

"Thank you for everything, Mr Rathbone, sir," Callum said, as the old man reached out a hand to shake his own.

"Think nothing of it, lad," Rathbone smiled. "Mimi and I shall walk with you all to the barricade."

* * *

Laura had been waiting for at least twenty-five minutes, with no sign of the Doctor returning. Either he'd appeared in another part of the TARDIS, or he was stuck wherever else he had appeared before. She'd listened out intently in the hopes that maybe she'd hear the Doctor passing by outside, but no such luck.

On the other hand she hadn't heard anything of the two Cybermen who had entered the console room, so it wasn't all bad. She'd even peeked out the door of the Zero Room once or twice but that came to nothing.

Eventually, she gave up waiting.

"That's it – there's no point hanging around here," she sighed, rolling up the sleeves of her hoodie.

Stepping through the doorway out into the darkened corridor, she took a deep breath to steady herself and then made her way back in the direction of the console room, in the hope that maybe there was some way to get back in touch with the Doctor, or at least get out of the TARDIS and find help.

Little did she know, her knight in shining armour was on his way. He just had to get past the other... more deadly men in armour first.

* * *

**Please remember to review, thanks, yep!**


	22. The Ghost in the Machine (Part Four)

**A/N - Hey, this is sort of me up to date on chapters now, but I should probably mention that my posting schedule is gonna be sort of random from now on, cos I'm on summer break! I'm actually thinking of taking a short hiatus for this series after I've concluded this 'episode'. I've also decided to update a couple things for Part Three and Part Four, but I'll elaborate on them at some later point, yep!**

**Review-y Reply Bit**

_**The10thDoctorRocks**_** - Haha, I'm glad you're still enjoying it! Ah, I haven't watched ****_Castrovalva_**** in a couple months, but I figure the Doctor might have stuck it back in when he was reconfiguring the TARDIS at the end of ****_The Doctor's Wife_****!**

* * *

Reaching the top of the cliff had been a nightmare, but not long after leaving the village, the small party had managed to climb all the way up without incident.

"Now comes the hard part," said Sarge, pulling out a small device from his pocket and pressing a button. Callum and Keith, meanwhile, fell on their backs, panting heavily. Ella chuckled and slid a water flask out of her pack, glugging it down.

"Check the packs that grandpa gave you," she said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "You'll both have flasks too."

"Ah, thank you," wheezed Keith, propping himself up a little so he could reach in for his own flask. Callum followed suit and they sat back for a moment while they drank and caught their breath.

"Okay, got a bearing," Sarge said a few moments later. The twins, who had been standing side-by-side in their constant silence, took a moment to look at each other, briefly nodding before shouldering their packs again and then looking at Sarge expectantly through identical orange eyes. "You kids ready?"

"Yessir," nodded Ella. "Let's go, you two!"

"Okay, okay," sighed Keith, pushing back his hair as he slid the flask back into his pack.

"I just wish this stupid thing would start working," sighed Callum, taking his phone from his pocket as he stood up. "Whatever teleport thingy that... Rain guy used has messed up the batteries. Even with the Doctor 'superphoning' it."

"What's that?" asked Sarge, as they began to walk across the plane.

"Eh, mobile... communicator... thingy? Not sure what you guys would call it," chuckled Callum, handing it to Sarge. The man looked at it with interest, and compared it to his own strange device, shrugged and pulled an amused face and then handed it back to Callum.

"Little bit crude, outdated too at that, but interesting design, none the less," the man nodded. "Just a communicator?"

"Well, it has _Brick Breaker_," Keith laughed, putting his hands behind his head as he walked.

"What the heck is _Brick Breaker_?" Sarge frowned, earning another bout of laughter from the red-headed boy.

* * *

It wasn't long until they arrived at the decayed ruins of the dead town. They took another break, with Sarge fiddling about with his device, the Twins sitting side-by-side on a shattered wall, and Ella, Keith and Callum sitting cross-legged around a large boulder, where Ella was laying out some food that had been wrapped up and put in their packs.

"Best to keep ourselves full," she was saying. "I know it's only been an hour or two since you guys last ate, but even still, you'll need to keep your strength up. Especially if we're facing enemies."

"We really do owe you guys big time," Callum said. "Any news on that signal, Sarge?"

"Nothing quite yet, kid," Sarge said. "I'm running a scan. Should be under one of these buildings, 'course, but there's hell of a lot of interference coming through."

"And hell of a lot of rubble to dig through," added Keith through a mouthful of some meat-filled tortilla type... thing.

"Heck, I know," sighed Sarge. "Some are worse off than others, so it ain't all bad. Hopefully it'll be one of the ones that aren't too badly buried."

"Yeah, hopefully," Callum agreed, wrinkling his nose.

* * *

Laura had ventured deeper into the TARDIS, hoping desperately that the Doctor would turn up at some point. No such luck, though, of course...

The lights seemed to be flickering back into life every so often, and there was still no sign of the Cybermen, thankfully...

And then as she turned a corner she found herself stumbling back as far off down the corridor she saw the silhouette of one of them. She pressed her back up against the wall and peeked round the metal frame to see the Cyberman as it seemed to turn to face where she had stood only moments before.

She pulled back and shut her eyes for a second, taking a deep breath, praying she hadn't been noticed. The sudden clang of metal on metal alerted her that there had been no use hoping, and with one final deep breath, she took off again, running back up the way she'd came.

This time her only hope was that her footsteps wouldn't echo and alert her pursuer.

* * *

_This isn't good. Not at all. Stupid time eddy. Need to get back. Laura. Keith. Callum. I need to... break through. If only... I could... make a link._

Concentrating hard in the dark, the ring of a phone could be heard.

* * *

Callum almost had a heart attack when the phone that had been dead only minutes before started to play his favourite All Time Low song. His ringtone...

"What the-"

"Answer it!" Keith cried, leaping up in excitement. "It might be Laura!"

Pressing the answer button, Callum held the phone up to his ear, excitedly.

"Laura?! Doctor?! Hello?"

"Who is it?" asked Keith.

"I don't know – I can't hear anyone, but there's some sort of noise... or something. Can't make it out."

"What's the number?"

Taking his phone away from his ear, Callum looked at the screen, only to see a series of those strange Gallifreyan symbols that appeared on the TARDIS monitor. Suddenly, the symbols began to change, into half-formed scratchy red lettering.

"R... E... D... I... A... L..." read out Ella, leaning in over his shoulder.

"Redial?" frowned Keith. "Redial who?"

"Redial the last number I phoned, maybe?" Callum replied.

"Friend or foe though?" Keith said, wiggling his fingers dramatically.

"Won't know til we try," Callum said, shrugging as he hit the redial button.

The ringing of a phone suddenly cut through the air and as the group watched in amazement, a crack of light suddenly ripped into existence about a foot off the ground. The crack seemed to flicker wildly and change shape, spiking and jutting out until finally with one final blast of energy, a familiar bow-tie wearing alien appeared, yelling out wildly and grimacing in pain.

"_Caaaaallum!_ Woo!" he yelped as he jerked his back and pushed one of his arms back a little, swinging it as he did. "Ah, much better! Semi-physical link, amplified through the phone using the excess energy contained in the time eddy! Like a big bubble pulling in a tiny bubble, for lack of a better comparison!"

"Nice to see you too," Callum beamed, "and cheers for that lovely explanation, not that I got a single word, but the bubble thing works fine."

"Yes, well, if it were like the bubbles..." the Doctor said, absent-mindedly, ruffling Callum and Keith's hair fondly. "Ah, sight for sore eyes, the both of you! Who are you friends? They look a little confused."

"Oh, this is Ella, Sarge and the Twins, er..."

"Backo and Drakus," Sarge said, looking at the Doctor in a mixture of confusion and amazement.

"They're from a town nearby, they helped us both out!" Keith said. "We'd be in a total mess without 'em!"

"Ah, then I thank you all," smiled the Doctor.

"So, this is the one you were looking for?" Ella asked Callum.

"Yep," Callum beamed, "this is the Doctor! And that means all we have to do now is find the TARDIS and Laura!"

"Not forgetting the Cybermen..." Keith said.

"Ah, yes, about that..." the Doctor started. Keith shook his head and pointed a trembling finger into the distance.

"No! _Cybermen!_" he cried. The group turned as one to see two of the metal monsters had appeared only about a hundred feet away. Immediately, Sarge and the Twins drew arms – large guns that had been holstered to their backs – and fired, sending several red balls of energy blasting forwards.

They barely made a dent.

The Doctor, meanwhile, had snatched Sarge's device and, while he gestured for the three teens to stand behind him, he was fiddling with it, prodding at it with the sonic screwdriver.

"Aha!" he cried, triumphantly. However, his moment was short-lived as a blast of blue light shot towards them. A quick dive to the side just in time barely saved Keith's life.

"You alright?" Ella asked, quickly helping him to his feet.

"Aye, cheers!" he grimaced.

"Get out of the way, you four!" bellowed Sarge, sending another few blasts at the Cybermen. They kept drawing closer and their fire seemed to be showing no signs of stopping.

The Doctor grabbed Callum and pulled him behind the wall that the Twins had been sitting on, while Ella and Keith took shelter on the opposite wall, closer to the building that Sarge was currently firing round the corner of.

"One down!" whooped Sarge as one of the Cybermen's chest units exploded, and the metal man fell to the ground with a last growl that seemed to be a mixture of a computer powering down and a groan of pain.

The other Cyberman stopped for a second at this and in its gravelly voice announced, "_Upgrade in progress!_"

"No!"

With a sudden blast of speed, the Cyberman shot several blasts, striking one of the Twins. He fell to the ground, a silent scream of pain visible on his face. His brother looked at his twin's fallen body in horror, firing more wildly at the approaching figure.

"It's no use!" yelled the Doctor. "It's upgraded to be impervious to the guns!"

Sarge reached into his pack and withdrew a grenade, biting off the pin and throwing it. The Cyberman saw it and fired a shot at it in midair and the sudden explosion was enough to rip apart some of the decaying buildings, and send the group sprawling back as debris and dust rained down on them. Everything was illuminated for a moment, and then all went quiet.

The sound of the explosion still ringing in his ears, Callum picked himself off the ground. He'd grazed his hands when he fell, and some of the falling debris had torn tiny cuts across his exposed arms and face. He grimaced in pain as he realised that there was a larger cut running down the inside of his left arm, and he bit back a sob as the blood began to trickle down his arm.

Ella was immediately by his side, tying up her hair to keep it out of her eyes. She didn't seem to have sustained any real injuries beside a few cuts and bruises. Keith appeared a moment later, looking rather pale, with messy hair and a burst lip. The Doctor, meanwhile, had already bolted over to check on Sarge and the surviving twin.

"Both unconscious," he said, appearing through the remainders of the dust. "Cyberman's dead as well... Too close to the explosion. Ah, are you all okay?"

"Don't ask," said Callum, his eyes watering as Ella applied some stinging disinfectant on his arm.

"Hm, in that case, I should probably take this moment to tell you both the good news: Laura's safe in the TARDIS."

"Why do I have a feeling-"

"The bad news is two Cybermen have managed to get in. I've had to put her in the Zero Room, but knowing her..."

"Yep, called it," Keith sighed. "She'll have wandered back out already."

"Well then," the Doctor said, "luckily I've managed to locate the tunnel down into... wherever the TARDIS has been taken!"

"Okay, so we've took out two Cybermen, two of them are in the TARDIS, how many are we reckoning are down there waiting for us?" Callum asked.

No one could think of a good enough answer, but the silent looks they gave each other were enough to communicate their worry.

* * *

It wasn't much later until the Doctor had managed to uncover a large trapdoor under the ruins of one of the buildings on the outskirts of town. Sarge and the surviving twin, Drakus, had woke up to find Ella had already seen to their wounds.

"I'm sorry about your brother," Callum said sincerely as they took a moment while the Doctor sonicked the trapdoor. Drakus nodded slowly in response, his large orange eyes boring into Callum's.

The Doctor, with a final flourish, stood back as the trapdoor swung open.

"Aha!" He pocketed the sonic screwdriver. "Okay... eh, Keith! Tell me what you see!"

"Uh, what am I supposed to see?" Keith asked, peeking down into the dark. "It's just a metal tunnel."

"Yes," the Doctor said, clapping his hands together. "What else?"

"Well, there's no rungs or a ladder or anything... I dunno. There's a few lights somewhere further down."

"Yes." The Doctor was waiting for him to notice something else.

"So if there's no ladder how could people get... up or down?"

"Ah, now you've got it!" beamed the Doctor. "Callum – your turn! Any thoughts?"

"Um... do we have time for this?" Callum replied, scratching the back of his neck.

"Not a clue! It's a pop quiz – gimme an answer!"

At the Doctor's words, Callum bit his lip as he concentrated on the hole. He craned his neck right over the edge and ran a finger along the outer rim.

"Oh... there's... there's something here! Like a little switch?"

"Yes, but give me a suggestion!"

"Oh, um, one of those things we had to travel down once! A gravity... gravity thing. Gravity platform!"

"Bingo!" the Doctor said, happily. "And, as a matter of fact, I'm pretty good with gravity platforms!"

The sonic screwdriver was withdrawn again and he pointed downwards, arcing it round in a circular motion. A thin blue sheet of energy suddenly appeared over the hole, and the Doctor had a little smile on his face as he stepped on.

"Is this safe?" Ella asked, looking rather uncertain about stepping on the platform.

"Completely one hundred percent." The Doctor suddenly looked shifty. "Near enough."

"Looks like our only way down," Sarge said, shrugging. "Hell, I'm out of my depth as it is, and it seems you three have a much better idea what the heck's goin' on here!"

And with that, and a few more uncertain glances, they found themselves descending.

* * *

Laura was running. Her heart racing and the sound of her blood pumping in her ears. The Cyberman had clocked that she was nearby, and now she was in real trouble. What was most worrying however was that there was still no sign of the other Cyberman.

And suddenly she was back in the console room, having got there with no real idea oof the route she'd been taking through the TARDIS corridors. The lights were all back on now, and the usual gentle hum of the TARDIS was almost comforting, at least until the clunk of metal from nearby caught her attention.

Ducking at the last second, Laura only just narrowly avoided a swipe from the Cyberman who had been standing in shadow behind her. She skidded across the glass floor and leaped down the stairs, as the Cyberman clunked down behind her, surprisingly smooth from something made of metal.

Laura launched herself at the doors, which had shut themselves behind the two intruding Cybermen earlier on. Her efforts seemed to be in vain as the doors showed no signs of opening. She tried desperately to prise the doors apart, but the lock just seemed to refuse to turn.

"You have _got_ to be kidding," she yelled, hammering on the doors. "Oh god, oh god, oh god!"

She fumbled in her pockets, desperately trying to find the TARDIS key, while the first Cyberman appeared at the top of the stairs. Meanwhile, its steel companion was at the foot of the glass stairs now, only a few more paces away.

She finally found the key, and quickly she rammed it into the lock and turned it.

She threw herself out the door just as a metal hand came within centimetres of clamping down on her shoulder.

And immediately regretted it...


	23. The Ghost in the Machine (Part Five)

**A/N - Hey, I'm doing good with catching up on updates, haha! Like I said last chapter, this probably won't be updated every Thursday anymore, just sort of whenever I have it ready to post. After this, I'm not sure how long it'll be til Part Three begins - either a few weeks, or not until the end of Summer. **

**Originally I planned to have this series finished before the 50th Anniversary but I don't see that panning out, but aw well, that just means I'll have a 50th Anniversary episode to write sometime during Part Three!**

**This episode actually only has one part left after this, and I hope you enjoy, yep! Reviews are welcomed and encouraged, haha!**

* * *

Laura slammed the door shut behind her and locked it instinctively, and pressed her back against it, her heart racing. She exhaled slowly and felt a shiver travel down her spine as she took in her surroundings.

She was in a large circular room, lit by strips and tubes that cast an eerie green glow over everything. In the centre of the room there was a round metal tank that went from floor to ceiling, wide enough for someone to stand in with a twisting handle for opening and closing it.

The only problem was that the door was hanging open, and the most terrifying thing Laura had ever seen was standing in the tube, looking right back at her.

"_Help... me._"

Laura put a hand to her mouth in fright. The figure was a mess of metal and flesh, trapped in a harness. The steel handles and half of a Cyberman's helmet was fused onto the face of a terrified looking man. Burns ran along the space where the metal met his skin, blood still dripping down several places.

His bare torso was mostly intact, apart from the centre of his chest, where a large circular device, identical to the other Cybermen, had been implanted. Wires and tubes ran down his still human left arm, while his right arm had been completely removed and given a steel replacement.

The lower half of his body had been completely picked apart, with strips of tubes and metal plating covering over ripped and charred flesh.

"Oh my g-god, I... I..."

"_Help..._" The man's voice was distorted and semi-robotic. Barely a whisper. "_Please..._"

Laura felt tears well in her eyes as she took in the sight of the man.

"Wh-what've they done to you?" she whispered, her mind suddenly empty of any fear for the two Cybermen on the other side of the doors. "I-I don't know what to do to help."

"_H-help me..._"

"What?" Her eyes widened as the man looked back at her, almost expectantly. "I don't know what to do!"

"_They took my group. My f-friends._" He didn't take her gaze off of her. "_They di-didn't survive the u-upgrade. A-and I don't want to._"

He broke down into rattling sobs that sounded like the wheezing of some strange engine. Laura was paralysed by fear and horror, though her attention was suddenly drawn back to the TARDIS by the sound of the door pounding.

She knew the doors were usually good for keeping things out, but whatever had snatched the TARDIS up had disabled that security, and now she wasn't so sure how long the doors would hold.

"I... I don't. I... I can't leave you down here!" she said, turning back to face the half-converted man. Tears were beginning to run down her face now and she could feel her hands trembling.

"_You must go._"

"Go? What do you mean? I... I can't..." She started to cry harder, a lump in her throat. "I... what do I do?!"

She moved closer to him, trying to find a control panel or a switch or something that she could use to release him from the harness.

He shook his head, wincing in pain as he did.

"_Too late for me, it would seem._" A sad smile suddenly appeared on his lips. "_You still have time._"

The pounding on the doors was louder now. It wouldn't be long. Laura gasped a little at the man's words.

"I can't just go! You need... you need medical attention or something!"

"_What... is your... name?_"

"L-Laura. Laura McKinroy."

The man grunted, as he turned his head a little so that they were both eye-to-eye again.

"_Run, Laura McKinroy, I'll remember you._"

"I... I..."

"_Go now._"

Their eyes lingered for a second longer, and the man kept the same sad smile on his face the entire time. Laura – with absolutely no idea what to do – began to head for the door.

"I'm so sorry! If I can find my friend he might be able to help! I'll bring him back here if I can," she said hoarsely, standing in the doorway.

"_Thank you._" The man inclined his head to look at her again. "_Good luck, Laura._"

* * *

The gravity platform finally reached the bottom of the shaft, and the Doctor hopped off. They were in a dark corridor, with only a few small green lights at regular intervals going either way as far as the eye could see.

"Is... is this the escape tunnel?" Sarge had taken his device back from the Doctor. "Bran's scans say it is."

"Yes and no," the Doctor murmured, sonicking about the gloomy tunnel. "It was the escape tunnel originally, but now it's just a hideout for the Cybermen. They've cannibalised the technology by the looks of it. Merged it with their ship's systems. Wonder what made them crash, hm. Probably just your usual systems failure."

"You're rambling," Callum muttered. "Okay, what's the deal? Are we definitely going to be able to find the TARDIS down here?"

"Well, the TARDIS was captured by Cybermen, and you lot traced that signal! I'd say so," the Doctor said, leading the way down the corridor, pointing the sonic screwdriver ahead of him to light the way a little more.

* * *

Laura was running. Again. She wasn't sure where she was going, and she had no idea where she really was, but what she did know was that these corridors were more featureless than the lower levels of the TARDIS, and probably just as gloomy.

She took a quick turn down the next corridor and found herself at a dead end. Swearing under her breath, she turned to go back round and screamed as she found herself almost running straight into a tall hooded figure.

"Ah..." the figure sighed. "The girl..."

"Wh-what?"

"You're the girl one." The figure's voice seemed to belong to a man, but it had a feminine sing-song quality to it that put Laura on edge. "How troublesome."

"Who are you? What are you doing down here?"

"I _was_ looking for someone else," the hooded man said, turning his back on her and gazing down the corridor. "It appears things aren't going quite as planned."

"What do you mean?!" she hissed, starting to lose her temper. The hood seemed to shift, as if he had tilted his head. Then he straightened up again and turned back to face her.

"Laura, Laura, Laura," he simpered, "I couldn't possibly begin to explain."

"Wait a sec... you're wearing a cloak like that guy on the TARDIS was wearing! You're one of those Tengo people!"

"I can neither confirm nor deny my affiliation with the Tengoku," chuckled the hooded man. "What I can tell you, as you'll well know sooner or later, is that Rain's game hasn't gone... quite to plan. You and your friends have an irritating ability to find each other under a variety of circumstances."

"You haven't tried killing us," Laura said, hoping she sounded more defiant than scared.

"Ahh, alas, that isn't how things are meant to be," the man said. "But I'll let you in on a little secret. A spoiler, if you will..."

"Y-yes?"

"Callum Hendrick will soon be ours." He had whispered it right in her ear and she felt the shiver of fear as it travelled through her entire body.

"Wha-what do you mean? What do you want with Callum?"

"Everything serves a purpose, and Callum Hendrick's purpose is of grave importance to, ahem, certain parties."

"Why?" Her mouth had gone bone dry, and she was trembling. "Why is Callum so important?"

"That's a secret I'm not quite as willing to divulge," the man chuckled. "Such a pity this test failed, really. Rain will be _ever_ so disappointed. He just can't stand losing. The tactician despises failure!"

"All you do is talk in riddles," cried Laura. "Just... just shut up and give me some answers!"

"I don't owe you anything, girl." His voice was suddenly laced with poison, which he switched back to his usual sing-song to say, "Goodbye," before he fell backwards into a strange rip in midair, much like the other man, Rain, had done back on the TARDIS.

Laura yelled out and tried to grab him, but it was already too late. She found herself running right through where he should have been, and fell to the floor, smacking her head as she fell.

Her vision was blurring – darkness overtaking her. She grunted in pain and clutched her head, where she could already feel a cut forming. She stumbled a little, and tried to keep upright, but it was no good.

She slumped against the wall, groaning.

"I'll... just take a second," she murmured to herself, before the darkness overcame her and she blacked out.

* * *

"Laura..."

The voice was distant – a million miles away.

"Laura..."

Yet so close.

"Laura, baby?"

So familiar.

"Hey, I think she's coming round!"

"Ah, thank god!"

Laura opened her eyes slowly. It took her a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the gloom, but as she blinked everything suddenly brightened with a blinding green light. It took her only another second to realise it was the Doctor, shining the sonic screwdriver right in her face.

"Oi, wanna quit that," she said, going to wave her hands in his face.

"No, no, don't move," Keith hushed, squeezing her hand to comfort her. "Ella's just fixed your cut. Give yourself a minute."

"Keith, oh God, I'm so happy to see you!" she murmured, pulling him into a hug.

"Me too, baby, me too!" chuckled Keith. "What happened?"

"I... don't really remember." She let him go and rubbed the sore part of her head. "There was... someone here. Someone familiar... and then. Oh, I don't know! I must've just fell, I guess."

"Well, it's good to see you're alright now!" smiled the Doctor, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"Ah, I knew you'd turn up again at some point," laughed Laura. "You left me in the Zero Room and then never came back!"

"Yes..." The Doctor looked awkward. "Time eddy, you know. They're very... volatile. One minute I was in caves, next minute I was in the TARDIS, next minute I'm absolutely nowhere! Luckily, I managed to get through to Callum."

"Hiya," beamed Callum, from over the Doctor's shoulder. He was standing beside a grey-haired older looking guy and a dark-haired man with strange coloured eyes, who were busy checking a strange mechanical device.

The only other person with the small group was a girl about the same age as her, with large eyes and long hair. She had a small cross pinned to her jumpsuit and Laura assumed that this was the 'Ella' who had just fixed her cut.

"Great to see you too!" She turned from Callum to Ella. "And thank you for, y'know."

"No need," the girl said, kindly. She began rummaging in a pack she had on her back, before producing a small box of pills and a water flask, passing them to Laura. "Take two of these and wash 'em down – the pain'll go away in no time."

"And while we're waiting, Laura," the Doctor said, "where's the TARDIS? And do I have to worry about getting hold of a Cyber pest repellent?"

"Oh! Y-yeah, about that..." Laura paused. "I barely just managed to escape the TARDIS, and I was in this sort of lab. There was a big metal tube, and there... there was a m-man stuck in it. They'd started doing something to him! Replacing his body parts with metal and stuff! He begged me to help – we have to go back!"

"That's not good at all," replied the Doctor. "Were there any others or was it just the one?"

"Just the one, but Doctor, we _need_ to-"

"I know, I know, Laura, calm down! We need to plan this out..." The Doctor rubbed his chin, thoughtfully. "I'm going to need to pick up a new jacket at some point. Lost it in the time e-"

"Doctor!"

"Sorry, sorry, yes, priorities! First, we need to deal with the Cybermen."

"I'd locked the door behind me before, but the security and stuff all went down when that thingy captured the TARDIS, so I don't think it'll have held them in too long."

"Ah, so they'll be back out and about then," grunted the grey-haired man. "Drakus, check the power pack on your gun. I had to use mine's full blast back there. Well depleted."

The orange-eyed man, Drakus, looked down at a large black metal blaster and frowned before shaking his head.

The man with the close-cropped grey hair swore and rummaged about in a pack of his own, pulling out a grenade a moment later.

"Confined conditions, Sarge," the Doctor said. "Wouldn't recommend it."

"What d'you recommend then, Doc?" Keith asked.

"Honestly?" The Doctor was suddenly serious.

"Yeah?"

"About fifty percent improvisation, forty percent imagination, and ten percent dumb luck!"

"Oh, great," Callum laughed, rolling his eyes. "Just the usual then."


	24. The Ghost in the Machine (Part Six)

**A/N - Really late update, so sorry! I've been on holiday, and the weather's just been too good to stay inside and write a lot of the time, haha! Um, well, yep, this is a pretty significant chapter in regards to the story arc! I'll try and have the last part up soon enough, and then I'll decide whenabouts I'll start on the next episode!**

* * *

"Are you sure about this?" Callum hissed as they made their way up the steel corridor. The Doctor, who had been leading the small procession, stopped in his tracks and turned to face Callum, placing his hands on his shoulders.

"Callum, Callum, Callum..." He paused for a moment. "Have I ever given indication that I'm unsure?"

"Actu-"

"In fact, never mind, don't bother answering that – just go with it, okay?"

"Fiiine," sighed Callum. "But have you actually worked this all out yet?"

"Er, no, not really, call it a stab in the dark."

"Yeah, yeah, we'll go with that." Keith rolled his eyes.

They continued walking, following the Doctor down endless corridors. Keith and Laura didn't let go of each others hands the entire time. Eventually, the corridors began to become more familiar to Laura, and she quickly voiced her concern to the Doctor, who nodded and gave her a kind smile.

"Ah, that's good," he said. "Right then, full on approach, I suppose! Come along!"

* * *

"_Power capacity at 45%. Capacity will need to be at 85% to begin conversion again._"

"_We cannot afford to remove any power from the door mechanisms now, with intruders present._"

"_Reroute power from unneeded machinery._" The Cyberman stomped in the direction of a large console across from the large green tube, where the half-converted man lay comatose.

"_Power levels rising to... 63%._"

"_Scans indicate without removing power from door mechanisms, maximum capacity will only reach 77%._"

The other Cyberman took a moment to register this, finally coming to a decision.

"_Divert power from locking mechanisms, and re-route into the conversion machines and locate the faults. Out of the forty-six surviving humans we converted, only four of those were successful. The system failure at impact has disrupted much of the machinery._"

"_Power diversion beginning in 10... 9... 8..._" The countdown continued, as the oscillating whine of machines rose quickly. Lights flickered and sparks flew momentarily, and then the doors slid open and the Doctor slid in with a dramatic flourish.

"Ahhh, thought I'd find you lads here!" The two Cybermen advanced, but he threw up his arms, the sleeves of his shirt rolled back. "Now, now, I'd be careful if I were you, and, er, halt in your tracks, _becaaaaaause_, I brought back-up!"

At that moment, Sarge and Drakus burst in behind him, pointing their guns right in the faces of the two Cybermen. The four teens followed in behind them, standing in the doorway, just behind the Doctor.

"_Scans indicate we have upgraded beyond being affected by inferior weaponry._"

"Oh, do they now? How about at close range, as well as being upgraded using sonic technology?" said the Doctor, smugly.

The Cybermen remained silent, while the Doctor paced around the computer banks, seemingly oblivious to just how tense the situation was.

Callum could feel his heart beating a panicky tattoo in his chest – these things were bad news. Somewhere inside him he felt a strange twinge of pain – fresh but old. He started to take some deep breaths as he watched on at the Doctor and his confrontation with the two surviving Cybermen.

"Well then," the Time Lord was saying, leaning over a bank of computers, "looks like you're rerouting all the power from the door mechanisms back," - he glanced upwards and followed several lines of cable over the roof of the chamber towards the large tube in the centre of the room – "into _this_ thing. Conversion technology is looking rough." He blew out a little air. "This has been roughly hacked out of surviving instruments. Used up too much power combining the ship in with the natural tunnels of the cliff, ay? Oooh, massive drain on the power, I bet! Maybe, oh, about 68% overall?"

The Cybermen looked on at him, their blank expressions showing nothing, though their silence spoke volumes.

"Take that as a yes then," nodded the Doctor, stepping over to the metal tube and sonicking it. The hatch slid open to reveal the same half-converted man that Laura had seen before. "Ahh, hello there," the Doctor murmured.

"_L-Lau...ra?_" The man sounded weaker now - the electronic distortion in his voice more dominant now. Laura gripped Keith's hand tighter, tears threatening to overwhelm her again.

"Well then, looks like a rough job – no parts or no power? Both?"

"_Correct. But soon that shall not prove a problem._"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the Doctor said, rolling his eyes. "Power and parts, whatever, but really, that's not the point! Your power cells are depleted, and frankly, there's no way any of your conversions will make proper Cybermen. Not enough units, not enough control, absolutely useless!"

"_Negative._" The single word sent shivers down Callum's spine, while the strange pain continued to throb through him.

"What?!" the Doctor asked, spinning on the spot.

"_Units, converge._"

Suddenly, several hatches around the room sprung open, and four half-converted Cybermen at varying degrees of flesh and metal converged on the group. The one in the conversion machine roared out in pain as energy flashed through his body.

"_Duck!_" yelled Sarge, as he took a step back and blasted out at the approaching Cybermen. The Doctor stumbled back and bounced behind the metal converting tube while the four teens dived back into the corridor, while Sarge and Drakus shot out blasts of energy from their guns.

Explosions rang out through the chamber. One. Two. Three...

The Doctor wasted no more time, leaping around the chamber to the TARDIS and diving in through the door.

"You four," he yelled over the noise, "in here now!"

The four teens cowering in the doorway rushed over, heads down. Callum looked pale and had a hand clutched to his head in pain. As soon as they were safe, the Doctor leaped back out the door and locked it behind him.

* * *

"Wh-what the hell?" cried Ella, looking around the massive console room. "What is... wait, did he just lock us in?"

"Oh, no doubt," sighed Callum, slumping against the other door, grabbing handfuls of his own hair and groaning. His skin had suddenly lost its recently acquired tan from their latest trip to a beach on Kaljifrax Minor Major, and beads of sweat were running down his face.

"Callum, are you alright? Have you been hit by a shot or something?!" Laura asked, completely forgetting her own injury in her concern.

"I... I... get it now..." His head suddenly lolled back, his eyes rolling back in their sockets.

"He's having some sort of fit!" Ella said, readjusting her tied back hair to keep it out of her face and diving into her pack. "Lie him flat and put something under his head."

Quickly, Keith pulled off his jumper and folded it into a square, placing it down on the floor, and together, he and Laura adjusted him so he was lying down just in front of the door.

Laura had found what she was searching for and she quickly mixed two little phials of something and attached it to a syringe, quickly driving it into Callum's wrist.

"Are you sure that's right?" Laura asked, brushing some hair out of Callum's face and feeling his forehead. "Blimey, he's burning up."

"Don't worry – it's perfectly fine for his condition, but what I don't understand is what caused i-"

Callum interrupted her by suddenly jerking upright and yelling out in agony. He burst up to his feet, his hands clamped to his eyes.

"What's happening _now_?!" yelled Keith. "Was this you?"

"Nothing to do with what I administered!" Ella said, waving a hand. "There's nothing in that solution that could cause whatever's happening to him!"

"Open the doors." Callum's voice was pained, and they turned back to see him standing with one hand still over one eye. He was slouched over a little, and he was breathing heavily. His uncovered eye was shut tightly, and he seemed to be looking at them between the gaps in between his fingers.

"Wh-what? We can't go back out there, Cal!" Keith cried. "The Doctor sent us in here for a reason."

"Keith, trust me."

"I..."

He opened his uncovered eye, and the three others gasped and took a step back. The sclera of his eye had become black, and the iris was a startling golden-yellow.

"Callum, your eye!" gasped Laura.

"I... I know," Callum gasped in between breaths. "You need to trust me here though, okay? I... need to help... the Doctor!"

* * *

The Doctor, meanwhile, could do with all the help he could get. Having successfully got the four young ones to safety, he had dived back out and immediately threw himself at a computer bank. The Cybermen still seemed to be occupied trying to confront the two gun-wielders, and their numbers had been quickly lowered from six to three. Drakus had been wounded by the looks of things, but he was still rounding on them from across the chamber, sending blasts of energy at the oncoming half-converted Cyberman. The other two were approaching Sarge rapidly, trying to corner him.

"Just a few minutes longer," murmured the Doctor.

And then everything had all went wrong.

With a scream of pain, Sarge had been picked up and thrown across the room, smashing against the wall above the Doctor's head. He crashed down onto the computer bank and before the Doctor could do anything to help, the panel exploded, killing Sarge instantly and showering fire and sparks down upon the Time Lord.

"_No!_" bellowed the Doctor, as Sarge's broken body tumbled to the floor. "I'm so sorry!"

The Cybermen had now noticed the Doctor's reappearance from inside the TARDIS and began turning back to get him, just as with a silent cry, Drakus blasted out and killed the other half-converted Cyberman before slumping to the floor.

"This... stops... now."

The TARDIS door flung open and Callum stumbled out, the tips of his caramel hair dripped with sweat, and he had a hand pressed over one eye. The door slammed shut behind him by some invisible force. He took great shuddering breaths as he stepped out of the doors, and the Doctor immediately began to rush over to him.

"No!" Callum threw up his other arm, and the Doctor stopped where he stood.

"_Scans indicate you are of unknown origin. Caution to be taken._"

"Yeah, you know it," growled Callum, turning to face the Cybermen with a wolfish grin pulling up at the corner of his mouth. "You couldn't possibly begin to imagine."

"Callum, what is going on?!"

"Callum's a little indisposed at the moment," Callum replied, a strange sarcastic tone to his voice. "Regular programming will resume momentarily."

"Who are you?" the Doctor cried. "What've you done to him? Possessing my friends isn't a very good decision to make, you know!"

"Oh, god damn, will you shut up?!" yelled Callum – or whatever was speaking through him – in exasperation. He turned to look at the Doctor, taking his hand away from his eye and revealing black scleras with piercing gold irises. "Trust me, the kid'll be fine. Guaranteed. Or your money back."

"What could you possibly be?" exclaimed the Doctor, taking an uncertain step closer. The not-Callum smirked and rolled its eyes, turning back to confront the two Cybermen who were standing silently, unsure of their next move.

"C'mon, kids, I'll even let you have the first shot!" he said, egging on the two Cybermen.

"What the hell are you doing?!" bellowed the Doctor, rushing forwards. Callum held up a hand again and the Doctor found himself stopping where he stood. "H-how?"

"Don't bother questioning it, Doc." Not-Callum narrowed his eyes as the two Cybermen raised their arms. "Oh, and shut up a sec, I'm concentrating here."

And then the Cybermen fired.

Time seemed to freeze as the Doctor yelled out in protest and not-Callum seemed to flicker and disappear...

...before suddenly reappearing right behind the two Cybermen as if he had been there the entire time. He reached out and clamped one hand on each of the Cybermen's shoulders, and chuckled to himself as his hands began to pulse with an impossible black light.

Electricity suddenly seemed to surge through the entire room, as if it was being attracted from every piece of machinery right into not-Callum's hands.

And then he let go.

For a few terrible seconds, there was silence, besides the crackling of the current still running through not-Callum's hands. The Doctor stood, one hand reaching out helpessly. The Cybermen were motionless.

And then the moment was over – the Cybermen suddenly shattered and collapsed to the ground in a pile of scrap metal, their metal bodies suddenly ancient, dented and caked in rust. The current around not-Callum's hands faded away with a final hiss of energy, and he clutched his eyes again as he began to yell out in pain.

The Doctor felt the strange tension in the air fade away, and he rushed over to his young friend, placing his hands firmly down on his shoulders.

"Callum, Callum, concentrate on my voice! Are you alright? What's happened?"

"D...Doc-" He interrupted himself with a scream of agony. "It's m...my head. My eyes – I-I..."

Callum had now silenced himself and had pressed his back against the TARDIS to steady himself, still clutching his eyes.

"Let me see your eyes, Cal," the Doctor said, in what he hoped was a calm voice. Callum seemed ready to say something, but instead he shook his head a little and took his hand off of his left eye and opened it.

As the Doctor watched, the black sclera seemed to be pushed aside, returning to their usual white state. The iris, however, seemed to be flicking in between gold and Callum's usual green.

"D-Doctor, it hurts too m-much!" shuddered Callum, closing his eye over again and wincing in pain.

A quick run over with the sonic screwdriver was enough for the Doctor to realise that Callum's body was shutting down – no doubt due to the terrible power of the being that had just been using his form.

"_You must put him in the chamber._"

The Doctor's head snapped round to where the half-converted man stood, still harnessed into the conversion tube.

"That's the only thing keeping you alive for now," the Doctor murmured sadly. He was now half-carrying Callum, while trying to keep him leaning against the wooden exterior of the TARDIS. "If I were to remove you from that tube, you would die."

The man gave a bitter laugh, and his still fleshy hand twitched.

"_I've been dead since they brought me here, sir. Just make it quick._"

"Thank you..." the Doctor said sincerely. "I'm sorry that this happened to you. What's your name?"

"_Kalik Aljin Alphonse._"

"Thank you, Kalik."

The man shut his remaining eye and inclined his head back a little, as the Doctor pressed the sonic screwdriver into the control system. There was a hiss as the harness sprang loose and the hiss of machinery from Kalik's chest unit fell silent, the light dying instantly.

The Doctor made quick work of heaving the body out of the harness and placing it carefully on the metal floor. He crossed over back to Callum and carried the boy's semi-comatose form over to the chamber, carefully fitting him into the harness.

His thoughts rushing at a hundred miles an hour, the Doctor quickly took in the still functioning machinery. He had little time, and one mistake could cost Callum his life, so he had to be extra careful.

"Here goes nothing..."


	25. The Ghost in the Machine (Part Seven)

**A/N - Things are getting tense now, haha! And this is where I'll be ending it off for a bit. A new ****_Meanwhile in the TARDIS_**** will be posted next week, and by then I'll have decided when Part Three begins! Til then, enjoy! Oh, and please review!**

* * *

Callum jerked upright, gasping for breath. At first he had no idea where he was, but after a few big lungfuls of air, his vision focused and he realised he was in his bedroom onboard the TARDIS. He had been put in bed still wearing the jeans and T-shirt he had been wearing earlier, so he quickly threw the bedcovers off of himself and slid into a pair of Converse, heading off in the direction of the console room.

"Hey, guys, you here?" he called as he entered the deserted room. Everything seemed to be fine – all the lights were on at their usual brightness and the console was humming contently. Callum ran a hand along it as he crossed the glass floor, before taking the few glass stairs two at a time.

He opened the door to find that the TARDIS was currently occupying the centre of the town square in the village he and Keith had came across what felt like days ago. This time, though, the square was packed with the townspeople, and Callum quickly ducked out of the door and locked it behind him.

"Why's everyone so lively?" he asked a kid - a boy of about twelve with long dirty blonde hair – who was sitting cross-legged at the side of the TARDIS, munching on an apple.

"The Cybermen are gone, 'course," the kid exclaimed. "Didn't you hear?"

"Oh... I must have passed out," Callum muttered, more to himself than to the boy. "Anyways, have you seen two kids about my age? They'd be with a guy with a bow tie."

"Oh, the Doctor and that? Yeah, they're over at Mr Rathbone's inn!" the boy said, taking another large bite out of his apple. "Fancy an apple before you go? Six gnarks for two. Picked fre-"

"Nah, I'm alright, kid, cheers," chuckled Callum, walking off through the busy throng of people in the direction of the inn.

Everyone was laughing and talking animatedly as Callum walked, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The sun was beating down, and he heard a few people say this was the first day of summer. He smiled to himself contently, his hands in his pockets.

Pushing open the door of the inn, he was greeted by his friends. The Doctor was sitting in a chair across from Mr Rathbone, drinking tea from a cup and saucer, while Keith, Laura, Ella and Mimi were playing some weird game that looked like Jenga.

"Ah, there's our soldier!" the Doctor chuckled. "How're you feeling?"

"Um, I feel great! I can't remember much though – it's all a weird blur... What happened? Did you get rid of the Cybermen?" Callum said, pulling out a chair and sitting down.

An uneasy silence settled for a moment, and the Doctor's face froze. Then the corners of his mouth seemed to pick up and he nodded.

"Yes, Hendrick," he grinned, "yes, I did!"

* * *

They trudged back to the TARDIS an hour or so later, having stayed for lunch at the inn before making their goodbyes. It turned out Drakus had survived his injuries, and he appeared just as they were leaving the inn. The Doctor had gave him his condolences for the loss of his brother, but the orange eyed man seemed to not really be listening.

"Grief," the Doctor had sighed to Laura as they began to make their way back towards the TARDIS in the town square. "Anyway, we'll go stick the kettle on – don't be long you two!"

"We won't be," Callum smiled. "Thank you for everything again, Mr Rathbone."

The old man took a draw of his pipe and nodded. "I believe it should be us that's thanking you and your friends again, Callum. We owe you a lot for ridding us of the threat of the Cybermen."

"Well, we couldn't have done any of it without Ella, sir," Keith said. The blonde girl blushed a little, covering her mouth with a hand to hide a smile.

"Anyway, we best be off! It was really nice meeting you all," Callum said.

"Feel free to come back anytime! Our door is always open!" Rathbone replied, shaking Callum's hand, and then Keith's.

"Hey, maybe we'll come back some day!" agreed Keith. "You just never know!"

* * *

Back at the TARDIS, Laura was waiting in the doorway when the two boys returned. Overnight, thanks to Ella, her head wound had completely healed, and she looked her usual self again, cheery as ever.

"Oi, you two, get a move on – kettle's getting cold," she beamed, wrapping her arms around Keith as he approached the door. "Ah, I really missed you."

Callum rolled his eyes and allowed them their moment – no doubt they'd been like this ever since they'd been reunited the day before. Though he couldn't actually remember that happening...

"Hey, Callum!" yelled out a little voice from nearby.

"Huh?" Callum's trail of thought was broken and he turned to look in the direction of the call, just as Mimi came bounding across the square through the busy throng of people, a large piece of paper clutched in her hand.

"Hey, Callum!" she called again, drawing closer. She finally stopped in front of him, and took a second to catch her breath. "I drew you a picture, as a thank you present! Pappy said you'd really like it!"

"Well, hey, thank you," Callum smiled, ruffling her hair affectionately as he took the drawing from her with his other hand. He looked at it, and his smile immediately dropped. "I- uh, I best be going now, Mimi – see you again soon, maybe!"

"Okay, Callum, bye-bye!" the young girl said, cheerfully waving as Callum rushed into the TARDIS, past Keith and Laura.

* * *

"Doctor, look at this," Callum cried, slapping down Mimi's drawing on the panel in front of the Doctor, who had apparently found another identical tweed jacket. Keith and Laura looked at each other quizzically as they closed the door and made way up the stairs to join them. "Look familiar?"

"What am I looking at? Mimi do it?" the Doctor asked as he picked it up and held it up to the light. "Is that meant to be you and Keith fighting off Cybermen?" He chuckled for a moment and then his face fell too. "Oh."

"Oh?" Laura echoed, confused.

"Oh," Callum agreed.

"That's one big, incredibly bad 'oh'!" the Doctor frowned. Then quick as a flash, he pocketed the drawing and turned to the three teens. "Alright then, I think it's time for a pit stop for you three. Give me a little time to do some errands, and frankly, you look like you could do with shore leave."

"What do you mean?" Keith frowned. "You mean home?"

"Of course I mean home," the Doctor cried, clapping his hands together as he set to work setting the controls on the console. "Great house guests and travelling companions you may be, but you can't just go forgetting all about your own lives!"

"But Doctor," Callum protested, "what about the dr-"

"Hendrick." The Doctor suddenly looked stern, as he tugged on the sides of his bow tie to straighten it. "Priorities! Right now, the drawing isn't one of them."

"But-"

"No, and that's the end of it! Now go get your laundry and those weird turkey dinosaur things you've put in the fridge, and you can have them once you get home! You three need a break after this... particular mishap, and there's one or two little loose ends I could do with seeing to. I've received something on the scanner. Something about little black cubes, perfect opportunity to visit the Ponds!"

"Will you be long?" Laura asked, as she followed Keith up the glass stairs in the direction of their rooms.

"Oh, I'll pop back for you in about a month," the Doctor smiled.

"As long as it's not another year and a half," Keith said, waggling a finger.

"Okay, I overshot that one," the Doctor groaned. "Don't hold it against my piloting skills!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Doctor," he laughed, disappearing around the corner. Now it was only Callum and the Doctor standing at the console.

"You're hiding something from us," Callum said, crossing his arms. "Or me at least. What's going on?"

"Callum, that's the point," sighed the Doctor, sitting down on one of the pilot seats and pinching the bridge of his nose. "There seems to be a lot of little loose ends that are starting to form something, and I need to make sure you three are safe from whatever that may be."

"But this affects us too, Doctor!" Callum cried. "We're already involved. That hooded guy – Rain. He wasn't the first one I'd met! Back in that Castle, not so long back, there was another one. He was with those people, the Tengoka, or whatever they're called."

"Yes, and if there's a sinister organisation going around trying to separate us, it's best that I leave you where you're all safest – back on Earth!"

"You said you'd come back for us though," Callum pointed out. "Were you lying, or is this just some way of delaying the inevitable or something?"

"Callum," the Doctor sighed, "I _need_ time. To work things out, to investigate, to make sure this isn't going to turn into something big. I might even be able to shake them off while I'm at it – and as soon as I feel it's safe enough, I'll be back."

"In one month for us?"

"Yes."

"How do we keep safe til then though, Doctor? These guys make it look like child's play – surely they'd find us?"

"Biodampers for when you're on Earth," the Doctor said, plucking three metal rings from the pocket of his new jacket. "Stick them on and you'll be untraceable – except to the TARDIS, of course."

"So you've always got an eye out for us then," Callum said, smiling a little as he took one of the biodamper rings and slid it on his finger.

"Exactly," the Doctor agreed, prodding him on the nose. Suddenly, the grinding of the TARDIS engines came to a halt and the Doctor glanced at the scanner. "Anyway, here's your stop! You best go pack your things... and stop worrying about everything! Callum, trust me, everything's going to be fine!"

* * *

As Callum disappeared up the stairs to his room, the Doctor's facade faded and his face dropped into a frown once again. Callum had every right to be worried, scared, angry, confused... New pieces of the puzzle seemed to just keep appearing left, right and centre. The Tengoka, the mysterious entity that had took over Callum that the TARDIS had been unable to find any trace of, and this...

The Doctor unfolded Mimi's drawing as he pulled it from his pocket and looked over it again. For the most part it was a crude, messy child's drawing of two colourful stick figures fighting off two thicker grey stick figures, but what had drawn Callum and the Doctor's attention was the symbol that had been carefully done in the centre of one of the Cybermen's chest units.

The triangle, with the lightning bolt directly down it.

"That symbol... What could it possibly mean?" whispered the Doctor aloud, a grim expression clearly visible in his reflection on the time rotor. "The Fallen Triangle..."


	26. Meanwhile in the TARDIS 8

**A/N - Hey, here's the Meanwhile in the TARDIS segment that's also a Prequel to Part Three! Part Three won't start until mid-August, or the first week of September at the latest, so I hope you don't mind the wait. I'll post an extra chapter on this just to tell you when it's up!**

**The10thDoctorRocks - Haha, I'm glad the story arc's got you thinking! Don't worry, I think this prequel might give you another piece of the jigsaw!**

* * *

Three small planets in perfect alignment rotated sluggishly around a dark sun. The planets had been burnt black at the dawn of time, said to be caused by a dark god who saw the worlds unworthy of his splendour.

Nothing remained on the surface of these planets anymore besides the Temples. One for each planet – Daya, the Temple of Genesis; Teren, the Temple of Infinity; and Tenua, the Temple of Endings.

It was the Temple of Infinity on Teren that the Tengoka had decided on as their main base of operations, and this was where they had chose to meet.

From the depths of twelve mysterious black tears of light, the members of the Tengoka materalised around a long stone table, each taking seat in matching stone thrones.

At the head of the table their leader, Alder, ascended from his throne and clapped his hands together, causing the several chandeliers around the hall to spark into life with green flame, casting an eerie glow on the twelve members in their seats.

"I am pleased you could all take time out of your various tasks to congregate here," Alder said, throwing his hood back. He was a grey-haired man with a large metal plate covering one half of his skull. A startling pink eye gazed out at the eleven seated men and women on either side of the table. Where his other eye should have been there was only a cybernetic blue light, implanted into the metal plate that had been roughly attached where his real eye had been lost so long ago. He spoke with a distinguished English accent, and a silver tooth gleamed in his mouth, glinting green in the candlelight. "Shall we do this properly?"

"Yes, Alder," nodded the woman sitting to his right, already unhooded. Her hair was tied back in a black bun, with grey hairs visible here and there throughout. Her eyes were milky-white and unseeing, as she gazed out into the space ahead of her.

"Very well, Tsanda," Alder said, smiling thinly as he steepled his fingers together. "Would you like to begin?"

"Of course," the old woman – Tsanda – nodded. "Tsanda, bearer of His Will of Sight."

"Cain," announced the man sitting to her left, his hood still shrouding his face. "Bearer of His Curse of Strength."

"Trask," simpered the next man along, seemingly too focused on gazing intently at his nails. "Bearer of His Charm of Poison."

"Judax," croaked the next figure along. She was a head shorter than Trask, with thin red lines tattooed on her face, running from the corners of her eyes and meeting at the corners of her lips. "Bearer of His Touch of Decay."

"Rain," breathed the Gamemaster through his strange mask as he drummed his fingers rhythmically against the table. "bearer of His Skill of Strategy."

"Olik," growled the man at the end of the left hand side of the table. He was the largest of the organisation, his cloak unbuttoned down enough to expose his heavily muscled chest. He had a close-cropped beard and a heavily scarred face, one running right across his watery blue eyes. "Bearer of His Pulse of Suffering."

At the bottom of the right hand side of the long stone table, the youngest member of the Tengoka smirked to himself as he held out his right hand and a stream of water twirled around his fingers: "Wusun, bearer of His Strike of Water." His eyes were ocean blue, and his messy raven-black hair seemed to be a styled mess – he wouldn't admit it, but it was partly the influence of spending time on Earth in the 21st century while investigating the progress of a particular human.

A young, beautiful and elegant looking woman was next, with startling violet eyes and long auburn hair. Instead of the usual black gloves the rest of the Tengoka wore, she wore metal gauntlets, embedded with tiny red gemstones. "Kalio," she smiled, "bearer of His Kiss of Fire."

Beside her, was an old man – perhaps older than Alder – thin and ill looking, with yellowing skin and dark brown eyes he peered through his small circular glasses with. Like Rain, his voice was filtered and mechanical, though as opposed to a mask, the only difference on the old man's face was a lack of mouth, and just a small speaker grille where a mouth _should_ be. "Baldor, bearer of His Taste of Pain."

Next was a girl perhaps only a year or so older than the young Wusun, a plain, bored looking girl with a tangle of blonde hair. The only noticable feature about her was the pink flower that held her hair behind her left ear. "Castella, bearer of His Grasp of Earth."

"Gaymer," murmured the man at the top of the right hand side of the table. He had long red hair and a beard that had been tied up in several small braids – "going for the Norse God look", Wusun had once joked. "Bearer of His Scream of Wind."

"And back to me," smiled Alder, coldly. "Alder, bearer of His Lust of Darkness. Shall we discuss our latest observations?"

"I think we best begin with the Earth boy. So far he is the only one of the eight to have been overwhelmed by the Key's influence," Judax said.

"Yes, that may be the case, Judax," Kalio replied, gazing at her gauntlets as if she was inspecting her nails. "But that was a complete fluke – a one-off."

"And of course it was enough to convince the Time Lord to deposit the boy back on Earth. It's been an entire month now."

"You'd think separating them twice would be enough to convince him," Gaymer growled. "Obviously _someone_ wasn't doing their job properly."

Rain slammed his fist down on the table in rage, and the sound was enough to break Wusun's concentration and sending a blast of water coursing from his hand.

"Don't you dare question my abilities," Rain bellowed, standing up to glare across the table at Gaymer, who sat and smirked contently at having wound him up.

"That's enough, you two," Alder said, calmly. "But yes, anyway, the point is that now the boy is safely on Earth, we can move on to the next stage."

"How long shall the Keys need now?"

"Well, the Earth boy was the last one to be found, and now that there's no interference from the power of the time vortex, it should take no less than another month."

"And what if the Time Lord comes back?"

"Our reports on the Doctor indicate he rarely returns for those he has previously travelled with," Tsanda said, "but enough on the Earth boy. What is this of the San Oraktus boy's marking?"

"Oh, it grew visible again," Castella said, twirling a strand of her messy hair. "He was actually stupid enough to confide in me. I suppose going undercover proves rather useful on occasion."

"Yes, because I'm sure being surrounded by sun, sea and sand is just _so_ stressful for you, Castella," Wusun laughed, breezily, earning himself a glare from the young woman.

"Can we not have a single meeting without petty squabbling?" sighed Trask, despairingly, pinching the bridge of his nose and looking skyward, theatrically.

"My sentiments exactly," croaked Baldor. "Anyway, what can we do about the San Oraktus boy?"

"He won't be ready for another fortnight at most."

"I still don't see why we can't just take them in now and accelerate the process here."

"The Eight Keys being accelerated in close proximity could be enough to completely wipe out this entire system, rendering all of our attempts up to now completely useless."

"Hmph, moving on," Alder nodded, "Tsanda, have you been able to find any trace of the girl from K'kanda?"

"I'm afraid not," Tsanda said – her sightless eyes flickering from side to side. "The other six can be found simply enough, yet she has never stayed still long enough to be spotted. And of course, the time vortex is still enough to occasionally cloud the Earth boy from sight."

"Alright, how long until the first child is to be brought in?"

"The girl from Shan Shen. Just another three days until she will be safe to confine until Day Zero."

"Ah, excellent. Shall you be prepared for the task, Wusun?" Alder asked. The young boy smirked.

"Of course."

"Very well." Alder paused momentarily. "Things are definitely beginning to fall into place."

"And the San Oraktus boy?"

"He's a simple enough boy," Alder shrugged, "nevertheless I shall shroud his mark. Shal lwe convene for now?"

A ripple of agreement ran along the table momentarily.

"Alright then," Alder nodded. "Our next meeting shall take place onboard the ship next time."

And with that, he faded away into the shroud of darkness. One by one, the other members around the table followed suit, disappearing into similar rips in reality.

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere and yet everywhere, a little blue box was being buffeted around the time vortex by the time winds. Inside the box, Clara Oswald watched as the Doctor happily leaped around the console of his magnificent time machine. He ran to one of the banks of buttons and switches at the side of the room and prodded and swiped at several of them, changing course.

"What're you doing?" she chuckled, as her bow-tie wearing friend did a little dance from side to side as he leaped from console to control bank, illuminated by the blue-green glow of the central column.

"Not a clue!" the Doctor replied, cheerfully. "Just one more and... there we are!"

With a satisfied clunk, the TARDIS reached its destination: the home of the Maitland family.

"This is my stop then! I'll see you next Wednesday," Clara smiled, standing up on her tip-toes to give the Doctor a hug.

"Yeah, I was thinking we could try Ancient China next week! Though I might end up inventing the stir-fry. Again... Hm..."

She chuckled again as she picked up her red bag and slung it over her shoulder, before she gave a small wave and made her way out the TARDIS doors, calling back, "Just make sure there's no carnivorous squids wherever we end up!", as she left the Doctor standing alone in the console room.

Just before the Doctor could have a moment to smile contently to himself, an alarm began to ring as the TARDIS took off, and he quickly slid round to inspect the monitor closest to him. Onscreen, a transmission was decoding rapidly.

"Ooh, interesting," he nodded, flicking a switch to maintain the TARDIS' flight through the vortex. "Where do you want me to go then, hm?"

"Glamisium Calit, Doctor," announced a deep male voice, seemingly from all around the room. As the Doctor watched, the transmission began to pulse a blinding white light around the console room, and the hologram of a man appeared, wearing a small flat hat and carrying a parrot on his shoulder.

"Ah, um, who are you? What do you want?"

"I... am a servant of the Universe," the man smiled. "And your assistance is required."

"Oh, and what would that be?" the Doctor sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Something has, ahem, fallen into the wrong hands. The Sontarans had a weapon. A most terrible weapon, perfectly tuned to commit genocide on the Rutans."

"I'm noticing a past tense there. 'Had', not 'has'. Who has it now?"

"The Rutans," replied the man, simply.

"Ah..." The Doctor looked upwards, turning a little on the spot. "So what exactly do you want from me? Jailbreak this boy?"

"Well, for lack of a more appropriate term, yes."

"Oh well, alright then, that sounds like something that'll keep me busy! And a perfect opportunity to drop in on some old friends!" beamed the Doctor. "I suppose you better tell me where and when I'm going then!"

"The Captain says you will find your co-ordinates already onscreen, Doctor." The man was apparently referring to the parrot. "Goodbye."

The man disappeared with a quick fizzle of power and the Doctor rolled his eyes.

"A Rutan war camp, and a boy who could wipe out an entire species," he marvelled. "Anyway... priorities!" He clapped his hands together before slapping down on the panel in front of him. "Next stop: Glasgow!"

It had been far too long since the Doctor had promised to return to Callum, Keith and Laura. He had went to visit the Ponds and found himself there for the Year of the Slow Invasion of the Very Small Cubes. After that, he had travelled with them up until the events of Manhattan.

And then the dark days came, stuck up on his cloud. And then Clara Oswin Oswald had came along, and brought him back down to Earth.

Now, here he was, travelling with her 21st century counterpart every Wednesday. So far, they'd visited Akhaten, encountered an Ice Warrior on a Russian submarine, and met the psychic, Emma Grayling, and the mysterious Crooked Man.

The Doctor considered all this for a moment. He'd been trying his best to find some sort of way of solving the mystery of the impossible girl, just one of many mysteries... He'd left quite a few mysteries behind after losing the Ponds, in particular the mysterious circumstances that were surrounding Callum Hendrick.

An image of Callum, under the influence of a mysterious entity back in the Cyberman ship, so long ago, suddenly came to the Doctor. The black sclera and golden irises; the strange black energy that had pulsed from his hands; the way the voice Callum had spoken with was the same, yet so completely different.

But since then, there had been no signs of anything strange surrounding the three teens since their return to Earth. He had gifted them biodampers to keep them safe from that sinister organisation – the Tengoka.

Yet fate seemed to have drawn the Doctor back full circle to reuniting with Callum and the others, in exactly the same situation as before – with absolutely no leads into the mystery of the Fallen Triangle.

"Hm, yes... Priorities," the Doctor muttered to himself again as the TARDIS changed course, veering off backwards in time by about a year. He had promised to be back one month after dropping them off, but he figured he could afford to be a week or so out. "I do hope Callum has Jammy Dodgers!"

* * *

**Coming Soon - **

**Episode 9: The Apocalypse Boy**

**Episode 10: Day of the Drowned**

**Episode 11: The Phantoms of Equinox**

**Episode 12: Terror of the Sands**


	27. Coming Soon

_**Coming Soon - Part Three Episode Guide**_

* * *

**_ix_**

**_The Apocalypse Boy_**

**"Hi, my name's Izzy - and I'm a walking timebomb."**

_(Parts 1 and 2) - _September 1st

_(Parts 3 and 4) _- September 8th

* * *

_**x**_

**_Day of the Drowned_**

**_"There's something in the water."_**

_(Parts 1 and 2) _- September 15th

_(Parts 3 and 4) _- September 22nd

* * *

_**xi**_

**_The Phantoms of Equinox_**

**_"The Tengoka killed this entire planet..."_**

_(Parts 1 and 2)_ - September 29th

_(Parts 3 and 4) _- October 6th

* * *

_**xii**_

**_Terror of the Sands_**

**_"I remember now... I remember everything."_**

_(Parts 1 and 2) _- October 13th

_(Parts 3 and 4) _- October 20th

* * *

**A/N - **Hey, no new chapter yet! I've decided for Part Three I'm gonna try and challenge myself to post two chapters each Sunday, because I want to start (and finish) Part Four - a ten part finale - before November 23rd, when I've decided to do a special Anniversary Arc! So I hope you can all bare with me for now!


End file.
